Ariel Sharon: Messenger of Abrahamic Apocalypse?

Fa'iq Da'ud was expecting trouble at Jerusalem's Temple Mount in 2000--or as he'd say, at al-Haram al-Sharif.

In fact, the violence that exploded at the world's most contested holy site this fall, and which ignited ongoing battles between Israelis and Palestinians, is only a pale glimmer next to Da'ud's apocalyptic visions--visions that shed light on a dangerous, often-ignored side of the Mount's place in the religious imagination of three faiths.

For Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, the 36-acre hilltop plaza is not only at the center of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, it is also center stage for the Last Days.

Da'ud's book, "The Great Events Preceding the Appearance of the Mahdi," was on sale at Islamic bookstores around the West Bank last year. The cover of the Arabic tract shows an aerial photo of the Haram--Dome of the Rock mosque at the center, Al-Aqsa mosque to one side.

Next to it is a picture of a model of the Jewish Temple, superimposed on the same site, replacing both mosques. Inside, Da'ud portrays a vast conspiracy of Jews and Christians that, he says, intends to build the Third Temple to prepare the way for the arrival of their shared messiah, who he says is the Antichrist. Yet he finds hope in the threat to Islam's shrines: It heralds history's final battles and the coming of the Mahdi, the true redeemer.

It's a dark fantasy but hardly unique. Moreover, Da'ud is just one of the writers who, in recent years, have produced a new, popular genre of Islamic works on impending apocalypse.

The books look forward to Islam's victory over the West. Ironically, though, they draw directly on the end-times literature of conservative Christians--including dispensationalists' expectation that the Third Temple will soon be built on its ancient site, ushering in the Last Days and Jesus' return to earth.

Underlying this strange symbiosis is a shared view of history: As a grand drama, scripted in advance by the Divine Playwright, and due to reach its denouement any day--in beleaguered Jerusalem.

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