00:00I don't know if you know what they believe, but they believe that they are living in their version of
00:05the last days.
00:06They believe that there is a man called the Mahdi, who is also the 12th Imam.
00:12And I don't know if you know this story, but they believe this guy was some, I think he was
00:15the 12th descendant of Muhammad in Shiite religion.
00:18And he was, and around the 9th century, he kind of disappeared.
00:23He went into some cave and they never saw him again.
00:26And they call this the occultation, which is a strange way to call it.
00:30But they say that he disappeared and he's going to stay alive.
00:35And he's going to appear at the end of days and lead them in this great campaign to bring the
00:41Shiite Muslims to power.
00:44They actually believe this stuff.
00:46They had a president called Ahmadinejad, who declared this to the UN about 10 years ago.
00:53And he said, this is going to happen.
00:54This is what's going to happen.
00:55We're waiting for the Mahdi to come.
00:57And he's going to bring the victory of Islam.
01:00He's going to destroy Israel.
01:02He's going to destroy the West.
01:03He's going to bring in this great apocalyptic scurge.
01:06And he's going to come back with Esau, who is the Muslim version of Jesus.
01:11Now, does that sound a bit strange to you?
01:15But you believe that Jesus is coming back, don't you?
01:18That might sound strange to them.
01:20But we believe Jesus is coming back and it's not up to us to try and make war to bring
01:25him back.
01:26They believe they've got to make war to bring this guy back again.
01:29So it's a very dangerous view because in their view, if they can do bring this to pass, then they're
01:34going to bring about this great, wonderful thing in which the Mahdi will come and bring Islam to power, destroy
01:41Israel.
01:42And so on.
01:44And because they believe this, this is not just a sort of political idea, it's a religious idea.
01:49And they really believe this, then they're going to carry on until they die.
01:55And they don't mind if they die because they go straight to heaven and they're paradise and they have the
01:5972 virgins to look after them and all that kind of stuff.
02:02And I have to say that most Iranians actually don't believe this.
02:05And one of the things they're up against now is the fact that very few people really believe this narrative
02:09anymore.
02:10So you have this diversion within the people of those who believe it and the unbelievers who are probably 95%.
02:18And the 5% who believe it have got the guns and they've got the power.
02:2395% don't believe it.
02:24And they're trying to get rid of the regime.
02:27Now, I think Trump hopes that as a result of dropping bombs on them, they're going to rally the people
02:31around and they'll get rid of the regime.
02:33It doesn't always work that way.
02:35And it's quite a dangerous situation because who knows where it's going to end up.
02:39What do you think?
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