With the U.S. and Israeli delegations absent in boycott, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the General Assembly on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in a rambling, apocalyptic speech in which he declared his confidence that the table already is being set for a “new world order.”
What Ahmadinejad means by “new world order,” however, has nothing to do with the globalist economic and political integration envisioned by President George H. W. Bush.
Known internationally as “Twelvers,” radical Shiite Muslims like Ahmadinejad believe the new order will come with the return of their messiah, the Mahdi – the child imam who supposedly went into seclusion at the bottom of a well more than 1,000 years ago.
Indeed, after a long diatribe in which he blamed Western civilization for most of the world’s major problems, Ahmadinejad concluded his speech today with an extensive description of his belief that the Mahdi will soon usher the world into a new era of peace and prosperity.
