The not-so-mentally-stable Iranian President Ahmedinejad as allowed, and at times encouraged, the impression that he is one of the 36 ‘nails’ of Islam:

According to Shia lore, the [12th] Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or “nails”, whose presence, hammered into mankind’s existence, prevents the universe from “falling off”. Although the “nails” are not known to common mortals, it is, at times, possible to identify one thanks to his deeds. It is on that basis that some of Ahmad-inejad’s more passionate admirers insist that he is a “nail”, a claim he has not discouraged. For example, he has claimed that last September, as he addressed the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York, the “Hidden Imam drenched the place in a sweet light”.

Last year, it was after another khalvat that Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency for a single task: provoking a “clash of civilisations” in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the “infidel” West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.

Sounds like Ahmedinejad thinks he is one of Islam’s team-Christ, put on earth to bring martyrdom to the state of Iran. I continue to call the Mad Mullahs, and now President Nail-head, the Jim Jones of heads of state. No one should even consider allowing this deranged person access to nuclear weapons. He has foreseen the annilihation of Israel in a ‘great storm’. He foresees a battle to the death with America. He sees himself as a chosen one.

In Ahmadinejad’s analysis, the rising Islamic “superpower” has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim “ghazis” (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world’s oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.

Well, America has barely flexed her muscles. Iran may have a lot more young men to send to the slaughter, we have some weapons on the shelf that can atomize Iran’s youth at whatever pace they wish to ascend to heaven.

For the Imam’s return will coincide with an apocalyptic battle between the forces of evil and righteousness, with evil ultimately routed. If the infidel loses its nuclear advantage, it could be worn down in a long, low-intensity war at the end of which surrender to Islam would appear the least bad of options. And that could be a signal for the Imam to reappear.

Who is good and who is evil? Well, it is fairly presumptious for Iran and the radical Islamists to consider themselves the essence of good in the universe. But if battle is to be the test, then so be it. Personally, I seem President Nail-head as a prime candidate to meet Allah in the nearest future.