There is a scurrilous email making the rounds claiming that according to the Book of Revelation the Anti-Christ will be in his forties and of Muslim heritage. I guess that lets some of the other people rumored to be the Anti-Christ, people like Bill Clinton and all the Popes off the hook. This email frightens me because of the fear and ignorance that went into its beginning and that which keeps it circulating.
The notion that the Anti-Christ as revealed in the Book of Revelation could be Muslim sends up red flags immediately. The Book of Revelation, also called the Book of John, is believed to have been compiled prior to 70 AD. Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was not even born until 500 hundred years later. In 605 AD at age 35 Muhammad began to recite revelations he believed he had received from God while in the desert. It took 23 years for the revelations to be complete and Muhammad did not begin preaching seriously until 622 when he took his band of 40 followers from Mecca to Medina because of persecution by the tribe that ruled Mecca. All of this was clearly long after the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament to be recognized as Church cannon.Evangelical Christians allegedly do not believe in astrology or fortune telling, but whoever started this rumor regarding the Anti-Christ seems to have confused predictions made by Nostradamus with the Book of Revelation, thus clearing anyone with even minimal knowledge of the Bible and Islam. There are segments of American society who have raised Nostradamus to almost sacred status, but it is a good idea not to confuse his predictions with religion of any kind.
Michael de Nostrademe was a French apothecary and a reputed seer who was born in 1503 and died in 1566. He is best known for his book of predictions. Most academics say that the associations made between the quatrains of Les Propheties and real world events are the result of mistranslations or misinterpretations, accidental or purposefully. There is no evidence Nostradamus accurately predicted anything.
Ever since September 11th, 2001 the right wing has attempted to manipulate the American public through fear, causing otherwise rational people to go along with the loss of freedoms, billions spent on a useless war that has lined the pockets of big business and helped to destroy the economy. It seems that even as adults we have to have boogiemen and Muslims are the new boogieman. This sort of rubbish is reminiscent of the lies the Nazis told about the Jews and we all know how that ended.
