The near future will be in the hands of Islam, Ahmadinejad said after a meeting in Kuala Lumpur with the King of Malaysia. He cited the victory of the Islamist group Hamas in the recent Palestinian elections as a sign of the rise of Islamism in the world.
History has shown that when Muslims become powerful, they do not use their power to the detriment of others, but use it in the service of peace and tranquillity, Ahmadinejad said.
The Iranian presidents vision of a world dominated by Islam in the near future is bound to exacerbate concern in the West and among moderate Muslims, who are alarmed by his strong views on the imminent return of the Shiite messiah, the Mahdi.
Ahmadinejad is on record as saying that he sees his main mission as being that of preparing the stage for the return of the Mahdi, said Ali Basrawi, an Iraqi Shiite political analyst living in London. He belongs to a school of thought that believes the Mahdi would return only when the world is in deep crisis. That political philosophy, particularly if devoutly believed in, could lead to very erratic and unpredictable decisions by the president of a country on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons.
Ahmadinejad told the Malaysian monarch that Muslims around the world bear a very heavy responsibility to introduce Islam to others.
He accused nuclear powers of bullying and threatening smaller nations.
