True believers dial messiah hotline in Iran

But the new political impetus in Tehran has invigorated efforts here. "Mahdaviat is a code for the revolution, and is the spirit of the revolution," says cleric Masoud Poursayed-Aghaie, head of the institute. "It's the code of our identity, [and] I think this belief has been increasing."

"The Imam is the connection between the people and God," says Mr. Poursayed-Aghaie. "When a person is waiting for a pure and proper person, then he himself should be pure and proper, [so] he will be positive toward the future and will be released from the disappointments of life."

Critics in Iran and outside dismiss end-of-timers as unscientific, traditional followers of myths. To counter those critics, the institute's news agency, online at www.bfnews.ir, began churning out reports three months ago.

"There is a gap between us and the popular media," says editor-in-chief Sayed Ali Pourtabatabaie. "We started the idea of a messiah news agency of the Mahdi [because] we thought we needed a news agency to publish His news."

"We think the world is a place for peace, not war," says Mr. Pourtabatabaie, who says he campaigned for Khatami in 2001 and did graduate work in human rights. "We visited [Ahmadinejad], and I asked him about nuclear weapons. He laughed, and said: 'Does our religion allow it?' Imam Mahdi does not like nuclear weapons."

Still, Shiite writings describe events surrounding the return in apocalyptic terms, similar to those used in Revelations, which some Christian evangelicals believe predicts a final world war during which Jesus returns to win and reign for 1,000 years.

In one script, forces of evil would come from Syria and Iraq and clash with forces of good from Iran. The battle would commence at Kufa - the Iraqi town near the holy city of Najaf (and home to the anti-US Iraqi cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr).

The evil commander named Sofiani and the anti-Mahdi known as Dajol (comparable to the Christian antichrist), would both be killed. The forces of good would be led by a "man from Khorasan" - a province in northeast Iran.

The Mahdi would return at Mecca, and fight. His victory would bring a government of God for a period of "seven," according to one reading. Seven months, years, or millennia is not clear.

Another text details a conversation, in which the Muslim prophet Mohammad describes the Mahdi as "God's ultimate thing," and that God "will conquer the Easts and the Wests of the earth through Him, and He will be absent from his followers [as he is now, known as the "hidden" 12th imam] to such an extent, no one can confirm his existence except the believer whose heart has been tested for faith by the Almighty."

Even while absent, the prophet is to have said, the Mahdi would benefit his followers, "just as people still benefit from the sun on a cloudy day."

"The Imam of the Age will have victory, and all the world will support him, except some regimes and governments that are racist, like Zionists," says Poursayed-Aghaie. The result will be global dominance of Shiite Muslims.

"Believing in the Mahdi and the Savior ... is superior to nuclear energy in the hands of the Shia," he adds. "The power of the Shia is bound to this - not a nuclear weapon."

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