How common is the belief that President Bush is the antichrist?
It’s pretty easy to go that direction. I’ve read that on occasion. It’s not real, real common. But the last time I was in the Middle East was eight months ago, and there wasn’t that much apocalyptic literature dealing with Bush as yet. When I go back this summer, my suspicion is I’ll see a lot more. What happens after the appearance of the antichrist? Then we have Jesus coming down to kill the antichrist. The Qur’an says God will lift up Jesus and return him back, which is usually interpreted as the Second Coming. So it’s pretty similar to the Christian idea of the Rapture? It is very similar. The permutation is that according to Muslims, Jesus didn’t actually die, so there’s no issue of Resurrection. As a result, this is viewed more as a completion of his lifespan. In Muslim apocalyptic literature, he lives out a normal life. Then, after Jesus is lifted up, Gog and Magog appear. These are invading people in the vague north, and of course, apocalyptic Christians once believed it was th
