We declare Fallujah as an Islamic state, and we call on you to be on our side! We are here to defend you from the army of Maliki and the Iranian Safavids! —Islamic State fighter (then Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) on the podium at the declaration of statehood in Fallujah, January 3, 2014[i]
Although our overarching thesis transcends mere flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), this series delves into a “this worldly” geopolitical, strategic analysis of ISIS formation and prosperity. While the main stream media originally reported that the IS appeared out of nowhere when Obama pulled the troops from Iraq, most now link the group’s formation to Jordanian criminal al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi converted to Islam and moved to Afghanistan to engage in jihad. In 1999, he started a group called Jamaat al-Tahwidwa-i-Jihad (JTWJ), focused on effecting regime change in Jordan.[ii] Along the way, he became increasingly convinced that the end times were upon us and that the Mahdi would soon appear. Zarqawi’s early aspirations are why many accounts trace IS back to 1999. For example:
ISIS was founded in 1999 by the Jordanian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Within five years, al-Zarqawi’s new group chose to associate themselves with Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. They are considered to be Islamic extremists, Islamists or Jihadists, closely linked to the concept of Jihad or “struggle.” Various similar groups, such as the Taliban, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah have also made the news for decades, but ISIS appears to be in a league of its own.[iii]
Notice that it misses the key distinction, Mahdism. While Zarqawi is accurately traced, the origin of the new state and caliphate is not fully accounted for. Other accounts in non-Arabic media are similarly incomplete. “A leading scholar of militant Islamism,”[iv] William McCants documented that a new state and caliphate was much more Mahdist than that of Al-Qaeda and was not exclusively Zarqawi’s vision. The disagreement was described in a recent fact book:
However, one account that has gained popularity and is supported by a large number of scholars and observers is that ISIS began in 2004. It can be attributed to what was originally called Alqaeda in Iraq. Owing to the fallout with the mother organization, which it was named after; Al-Qaeda, it rebranded in 2006. The cause for the fallout is attributed to the short and long term goals. Although both were opposed to Western values and influence, ISIS wanted to focus its energies to activities in Iraq and Syria. It was and is still preoccupied with establishing an independent Islamic state. Alqaeda on the other hand was predominantly occupied with fighting the west, particularly the USA.[v]
Sayf al-Adl was Zarqawi’s Al-Qaeda contact in Qandahar, Iraq. Zarqawi was sent to form a new training camp in the mountains. His mission was to resist the United States invasion, and Obama played right into his hands. McCants cited an early quote from Adl already speaking of a “state” and “caliphate,” reflecting his Mahdism and the brain-seed of the IS.
Sayf recalled. “This is our historical opportunity…to establish the state of Islam, which would play the greatest role in lifting injustice and bringing truth to this world, by God’s permission. I was in agreement with brother Abu Mus’ab [al-Zarqawi] in this analysis.” For Sayf and presumably for Zarqawi, the “state of Islam” was the caliphate itself.[vi]
Zarqawi’s Mahdism was reinforced by Sayf Adl and in 2004, Zarqawi wrote that the group would establish the “caliphate according to the prophetic method.”[vii] After many successful raids, Zarqawi became a folk hero to Iraqi Sunnis. Although it has been argued that the IS was a product of the Arab Spring,[viii] it is more accurate to credit their genesis to the US troop pullout in Iraq. In that sense, the US is responsible for the IS’ formation. From 2004 forward, we track four stages of development.
Stage One: Mahdism (1999–2006):
In 2004, JTWJ formally became an Al-Qaeda affiliate with the establishment of the branch of Al-Qaeda in Iraq led by Zarqawi and called “Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (Iraq).” While not personally a member of Al-Qaeda, Zarqawi teamed up with them in Iraq, where his Mahdism was fueled by associates who, convinced of the Mahdi’s soon arrival, later became the leadership of the IS. Zarqawi led a terrorist-guerilla war against the American and coalition forces and against the Shi’ite population. The first stage ended when Zarqawi was killed in an American targeted attack in June 2006.
Stage Two: ISI to ISIS (2006–2014):
ISI served as an umbrella network for several jihadi organizations waging a guerilla campaign against the United States’ Coalition Forces. After the American army withdrew from Iraq, the Obama administration’s puppet Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik betrayed prominent Sunni leaders that had been arrested, which only deepened the divide and strengthened the IS. Following the escalation of the Syrian civil war…they declared the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
Stage Three: ISIL to the IS (June 2014–November 2015)
This stage is characterized by dramatic ISIS military achievements. The most important was the takeover of Mosul in June 2014, the second-largest city in Iraq. At the same time, ISIS established its control in eastern Syria, where it set up a governmental center (its “capital city”) in Al-Raqqah and conquered the prophetically important Dabiq. In the wake of its success, ISIS declared the establishment of a caliphate headed by a recently released US detainee, vetted by the IS theologians to match Hadith qualifications, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an intellectual with a legitimate PhD in Islamic studies. Baghdadi was handpicked as the future of the IS, but he had nothing to do with its creation.
Stage Four: The IS to Da’esh(November 13, 2015)
The Paris bombing changed the landscape, and there is enormous global pressure to completely eradicate the IS but increasing conciliation that it is indeed a state. Putin and the entire international community are calling for a new crusade. We believe the IS has attracted too much international attention to survive much longer. After deploying a weapon of mass destruction, we believe a global campaign will make an example out of the US fulfilling a dialectic. The IS’ sectarianism and gratuitous violence make it a unlikely candidate for mass appeal. Sectarianism is poorly understood.
For example, Middle East reporter, Hana Levi Julian, suggests that Sunni and Shia might work together against Israel. She fails to recognize the depth of the sectarian divide.
A cataclysmic clash of civilizations is taking place in Syria, one that a number of nations have patiently awaited for decades.
Turkey, so deeply invested in the glorious history of its Ottoman Empire period, would find great satisfaction in stretching its influence with a modern-day “Turkish Islamic Union” that might embrace like-minded nations in the region and perhaps also beyond.
Da’esh, as it is known in the Middle East and which in English calls itself the “Islamic State” (known by others as ISIS or ISIL) is rapidly stretching its influence to build a worldwide Sunni caliphate. It began as a splinter group from the Al Qaeda terrorist organization, and then morphed into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (hence “ISIS”)—but at last count had successfully recruited more than 41 other regional Muslim terrorist organizations to its cause from around the world on nearly every continent.[ix]
Despite a bitter hatred of each other that surpasses even anti-Semitism, Sunni and Shia will eventually cooperate against the Second Coming, but only after demonic allurement (Revelation 16:13–14). In regard to Armageddon, Israel’s Muslim neighbors are demonically compelled to Jerusalem as the sixth angel pours out his vial or bowl of wrath by the three “frog” spirits. For the IS’ narrative to be coherent with its theology and recruitment literature, they have to attack Istanbul next to take “Constantinople” and then Rome and then Jerusalem, at least that is how the most trusted Hadith reads. The Mahdi appears in Constantinople, which is now called Istanbul after being taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
Cerantonio notes that the Ottomans, who defeated the Byzantines, accepted the mantle of “Rome” explicitly: The sultan called himself the “Caesar of Rome” and believed he was establishing a third Roman Empire. And when the Ottoman line ended in 1924—leaving the world without a caliph—their successors were the secular republicans of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Those successors still reign in Istanbul and Ankara, and the Islamic State considers them apostates, even though the most recent of them, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is generally counted as an Islamist by those who aren’t members of ISIS.[x]
However, for the IS’ Dabiq prophecy interpretation to remain coherent, from Dabiq they must go to Constantinople. The Sahih Muslim, Hadith, recorded the alleged prophecy.
Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The Last Hour would not come until the Romans would land at al-A’maq or in Dabiq. An army consisting of the best (soldiers) of the people of the earth at that time will come from Medina (to counteract them). When they will arrange themselves in ranks, the Romans would say: Do not stand between us and those (Muslims) who took prisoners from amongst us. Let us fight with them; and the Muslims would say: Nay, by Allah, we would never get aside from you and from our brethren that you may fight them. They will then fight and a third (part) of the army would run away, whom Allah will never forgive. A third (part of the army).which would be constituted of excellent martyrs in Allah’s eye, would be killed and the third who would never be put to trial would win and they would be conquerors of Constantinople.[xi]
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Given that the IS places itself as the defeaters of the crusaders, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople cannot fulfill the prophecy and they must defeat Istanbul, and only then do they attack Rome. However, logical inconsistencies have not stopped the IS from attacking Paris, so anything goes. As they build a fledgling state, we wonder how many years must pass before their interpretation is discredited. Also note the glaring absence of the Mahdi in the Dabiq prophecy. Interestingly, we cannot find a single truly ancient source with Muhammad prophesying a Mahdi. All are found in eighth- and ninth-century Hadith published after the Apocalypse of Psuedo-Methodius, which is now classified as Christian pseudapigrapha. Apparently, the Mahdi was created as a Muslim alternative to the Great Roman Emperor Topos of medieval Christian eschatology.
Even so, it is not at all likely that Sunni and Shia will “team up” against Israel anytime soon because of the war in Syria. The IS has killed more Muslims than it has Christians, and even attacked a Shia funeral.[xii] The IS has attacked Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization, who attacks Israel.[xiii] The divide is deeper than non-Muslims comprehend and it stifles Muslim expansionism. Dietrich Jung, a political scientist, writes, “Sunnis have not forgotten that during the Muslim Brothers’ confrontation with the Syrian regime, Iran made a tactical decision and supported the Syrian authorities not the Muslim Brothers.”[xiv] We do not believe Iran will ever cooperate with the IS, nor vice versa.
The IS Responds to Petrus Romanus
The pope’s call for a “Just War” has not escaped the IS. Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani responded to the pope and the Vatican diplomats:
And so we promise you [O crusaders] by Allah’s permission that this campaign will be your final campaign. It will be broken and defeated, just as all your previous campaigns were broken and defeated, except that this time we will raid you thereafter, and you will never raid us. We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market.[xv]
The IS published a fabricated image with the black IS flag flying above the obelisk in St. Peter’s Square, on the cover of IS’ official magazine Dabiq.
Habeeb Al-Sadr, the Iraqi ambassador to the Vatican since 2010, warned, “What has been declared by the self-proclaimed Islamic State is clear—they want to kill the Pope, the threats against the Pope are credible.”[xvi] After the Paris incident, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano banned all drones from the St. Peter’s Square as the Year of Mercy is due to attract millions of tourists to the Vatican. Alfano stressed, “Particular attention has been dedicated to the risk of an attack from the air, using drones.”[xvii]
The UN and Vatican are undoubtedly working together. Following his promotion of the UN to stop unjust aggressors, Pope Francis asked, “Is there an unjust aggressor? It would seem there is.”[xviii] By way of implication, it seems at minimum a Just War—or perhaps something more akin to the Last Crusade—has already been called for by Petrus Romanus. Addressing the Italian Parliament, Mr. Alfano said that security would be tightened around any potential target, particularly around St. Peter’s Square. “Particular attention has been dedicated to the risk of an attack from the air, using drones.”[xix] It seems Rome anticipates an attack on the city, as many of their own prophecies, the occult Sibylline and Zohar predictions, and the book of Revelation agree.
Gog of Magog?
Obama administration officials conceded on October 1, 2015, that there was little they could do in Syria to protect the CIA trained anti-Assad rebels who were taking airstrikes from the highly trained Russian Air Force. According to The Daily Beast:
The rebels attacked by Russian forces on Wednesday and Thursday were in western Syria, alongside al Qaeda affiliates and far from any ISIS positions. That suggests the rebels were not there to fight the self-proclaimed Islamic State, as the Obama administration called the top priority. Instead, they were battling the Assad regime as part of a still-active CIA program for rebels which has run in tandem with the disastrous and now-defunct train and equip Pentagon program.[xx]
Army Col. Steven Warren said, “We don’t believe that [Russia] struck [ISIS] targets. So that is a problem.” This was confirmed by Lt. Gen. Robert Otto, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, who reiterated, “Where those strikes occurred, those were not anti-ISIS strikes.”[xxi] Other than the obvious potential for World War III between the nuclear superpowers, Russia’s elimination of the CIA-supported rebel groups fighting Assad is so troublesome because it strengthens the Islamic State by eliminating their enemies. Russia is defending the Assad government. Apparently, there is a proxy war underway between Russia and the United States.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker was almost speechless: “I don’t even know what to say, we are getting to a place where there are very little, if any, options left.”[xxii] Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe, the former top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, added, “The answer is not ‘Go after Russia and start World War III.’ I just don’t know what the [solution is]—that’s what we’re working on now.”[xxiii] But what if Russia (or the IS) leaves us no choice? Over 750,000 of the world’s most ancient Christian population has already been displaced or brutally murdered. How many more Syrian Christians must die before the US—or as suggested by Pope Francis, a United Nations Force—does intervene?
However, seemingly in response to the US criticism, a few days later, Putin nailed nine important Islamic State targets. “Soviet jets pounded terrorist targets in Syria overnight using bunker busting bombs to blow up an ISIS command outpost, potentially killing dozens of fighters.” Even so, the Russian strategy emphasizes bombing American supported rebels more than the IS.
Russian diplomats and military officials contend the air attacks are aimed at Islamic State extremists, but that claim is widely disputed by the US and others, who say the Russians have too often bombed Syrian opposition fighters who have no connection with, or allegiance to, the Islamic State militants.[xxiv]
The raids come after a senior British military expert said the West has been totally outflanked by Putin on the Syria crisis because its policymaking has been dominated by “wishful thinking.”[xxv] Where does this place Vladimir Putin in the long-game, preternatural dialectic of the powers and principalities? As one might expect, many prophecy watchers believe Putin is a likely candidate for Gog of Magog, the leader who comes against Israel from the North in the famous prophetic battle of Ezekiel 38–39.
Doug Woodward explains the Islamocentric view of Mystery Babylon as “an ascendant empire in the Middle East (usually Turkey, Saudi Arabia, possibly Iran or now, ISIS) will become the power base of Antichrist, when he claims to be the Mahdi.”[xxvi] For example, Michael Heiser, once wrote, “We need not twist such prophecies to target modern political villains, like the former Soviet Union. The Israeli-Muslim feud is both more rational, and more biblical.”[xxvii] Heiser explained:
The book of Revelation prophesies the revival of the now defunct eastern Roman Empire (“mystery Babylon”; Rev. 17) in the future—a kingdom with which the beast/Antichrist is somehow associated. This revived Babylonian empire, the revived eastern Roman Empire, encompasses all of today’s modern Muslim nations, as did the original eastern (Byzantine) Roman Empire.[xxviii]
Heiser’s view stands in sharp relief to the Scofield Reference Bible, which explicitly identified Russia and was actually published long before the Marxist revolution and formation of the militantly atheistic Soviet Union. In a sense, Islam is a more modern enemy in that Mahdism, as expressed by the IS, is a relatively late phenomenon resulting from the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. Woodward predicts that the “Islamic-centric view will prove incorrect within a few short years. Many will object, but I will continue to advance the much more conventional position that Gog is not just a Turk.”[xxix]
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Defending the Scofield view, Woodward notes, “The conventional view has held for over a century that the ‘revived Roman Empire’ (inferred from Daniel 9:24–27), from which Antichrist draws his earthly power, will arise from Western Europe (the ‘merchants of Tarshish’) or its ‘young lions’ (their colonies in the Western Hemisphere—See Ezekiel 38:13). Alongside this conclusion, the traditional view sees Russia leading the alliance of Islamic nations (Iran, aka Persia).”[xxx] He believes that Putin might indeed be the infamous Gog, at least the humanly visible side of an unseen “power” driving his ideology.[xxxi] Gog does not seem to be Muslim because its “evil purpose” (Ezekiel 38:10) is about securing financial gain (Ezekiel 38:12–13). He does not attack Israel to gain the holy land (Ezekiel 5:5; 38:12–13). He has no interest in the Temple Mount or its sanctuaries. “Gog’s battle is not launched against Israel because of who Israel is in relation to God, nor because of the spiritual significance that Jerusalem holds to Christians, Jews, or Muslims.”[xxxii] If Gog were the Mahdi or any Muslim, a religious motivation for invading Israel would be present.
When it comes to Russia as Magog or Turkey, rather than an “either/or” situation, this could be a case of “both/and”—especially because of both Turkey and Russia’s continuing political alliance with Muslim nations like the Assad regime and Iran. A Messianic teacher, Benni Kleynhans, identified: “Russia, Moscow, Tobolsk, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Sudan, Lybia, Austria and Germany, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Russian allies are respectively identified with the following names from Ezekiel: Gog and Magog, Mesech and Tubal, Persia, Ethiopia, Lybia, Askenaz, Gomer, Togarmah and many nations with you.”[xxxiii] One is not bound to an exclusively Muslim confederation, much like Israel’s political enemies in the UN; the Magog war very well could entail Russia leading a group of Islamic nations.
The Russian Orthodox Christian Church has described the Putin administration’s fight against the IS as a “holy battle” [crusade]. Head of the Church’s Public Affairs Department, Vsevolod Chaplin, told Interfax news agency.
The fight with terrorism is a holy battle and today our country is perhaps the most active force in the world fighting it. The Russian Federation has made a responsible decision on the use of armed forces to defend the People of Syria from the sorrows caused by the arbitrariness of terrorists. Christians are suffering in the region with the kidnapping of clerics and the destruction of churches. Muslims are suffering no less (emphasis added).[xxxiv]
He also said that an interfaith council representing Russia’s main religions—Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism—will release a joint statement supporting the crusade against ISIS. In early 2012, Putin met with church representatives who described the horrific treatment of Christians around the world, especially the Muslim world:
The head of External Church Relations, Metropolitan Illarion, said that every five minutes one Christian was dying for his or her faith in some part of the world, specifying that he was talking about such countries as Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and India. The cleric asked Putin to make the protection of Christians one of the foreign policy directions in future.
“This is how it will be, have no doubt,” Putin answered.[xxxv]
The Muslim rebels were quick to respond. Syrian opposition member, Bassam Jaara said:
The Orthodox Church’s call for a holy war in Syria warrants a declaration of jihad. The Orthodox Church described Putin’s battle in Syria as ‘holy’, meaning a crusade war.… A “holy” war requires a call for jihad.[xxxvi]
The stage is set for World War III and, perhaps, the final battle occurring at “a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon” (Revelation 16:16).
UP NEXT: ISIS, Pope Francis, and The Destroyer
[i]Yasir Ghazi, Tim Arango, “Iraq Fighters, Qaeda Allies, Claim Falluja as New State,” New York Times, January 3, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/04/world/middleeast/fighting-in-falluja-and-ramadi.html?_r=0 accessed March 10, 2016.
[ii] TOM AND CRIS—THIS ENDNOTE WAS BLANK. IS IT Ibid.?
[iii] “A Brief History of Isis,” Chosen People Ministries, http://chosenpeople.com/main/index.php/ministry-news/926-a-brief-history-of-isis.
[iv] William Maclean, “Militants Plan al Qaeda Cartoon for Kids, Monitors Say,” Reuters, July 20, 2011, http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE76J58820110720 accessed March 10, 2016.
<TOM AND CHRIS, I don’t know what the following means…>o match hadithticte” (IS) (or “adership of the ISstudies and veryss destruction.Revelation
[v]ISIS: A Comprehensive Guide on ISIS. Kindle Edition (Fanton Publishing Inc., 2015), Kindle Locations 51–56.
[vi]Adl, “Tajrubati,” 20, as cited by William McCants, The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State, Kindle Edition (St. Martin’s Press, 2015) Kindle Locations 141–145.
[vii] Zarqawi, “al-Bay’a li-tanzim al-Qa’ida bi-qiyadat al-Shaykh Usama bin Ladin,” Kalimatmudi’a, October 17, 2004, 171. In McCants,. The ISIS Apocalypse, Graeme Wood, 2016, accessed March 9, 2016. <NOTE THE FOLLOWING IS GARBLED.>im four stages of development.
into their hands. McCants cited an early quote alreKindle Locations 3161–3163.
[viii] Adam Hanieh, “A Brief History of ISIS,” Jacobin, December 2015, https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/isis-syria-iraq-war-al-qaeda-arab-spring/, accessed March 1, 2015.
[ix] http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/analysis-iran-isis-likely-to-unite-for-wwiii/2016/02/28/.
[x] Graeme Wood, “Donald Trump and the Apocalypse,” The Atlantic, February 22, 2016, accessed March 9, 2016, http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/02/donald-trump-pope-isis/470307/.
[xi]Sahih Muslim, “Pertaining to the Conquest of Constantinople and the Appearance of the Dajjal and Descent of Jesus Son of Mary (Jesus Christ), “http://www.theonlyquran.com/hadith/Sahih-Muslim/?volume=41&chapter=9.
[xii]“ISIS Attack on Funeral Risks Reigniting Sunni-Shi’ite Bloodbath,” ArutzSheva, February 29, 2016, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/208705#.VuHJc_krIee, accessed March 12, 2016.
[xiii] Tom Wyke, “Gaza Rocked by Suspected ISIS Car Bomb Attacks on Hamas,” Daily Mail, July 19, 2015,http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3167516/Gaza-rocked-suspected-ISIS-car-bomb-attacks-Hamas-Islamic-Jihad-officials-jihadis-continue-struggle-power.html, accessed March 1, 2016.
[xiv] Dietrich Jung, ed., The Middle East and Palestine: Global Politics and Regional Conflict (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), 135.
[xv]“Foreword” Dabiq 4, http://media.clarionproject.org/files/islamic-state/islamic-state-isis-magazine-Issue-4-the-failed-crusade.pdf page 4.
[xvi] Natasha Culzac, “Islamic State: Pope Is ‘Being Targeted by Isis,’ Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See Warns,” The Independent, September 16, 2014, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/islamic-state-pope-being-targeted-by-isis-iraqi-ambassador-to-the-holy-see-warns-9736110.html , accessed May 22, 2015.
[xvii] “New Measures Seek to Prevent ISIS Drone Attack on Vatican in Year of Mercy,” The Catholic Herald, http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/11/18/new-measures-seek-to-prevent-isis-drone-attack-on-vatican-in-year-of-mercy/.
[xviii] O’Connell, “Full Text,” accessed July 23, 2015.
[xix] Sara Malm, Sam Tonkin, Will Stewart, “Helpless Russian Pilots ‘Were Shot Dead as They Parachuted to the Ground’: Furious Putin Accuses Turkey of ‘Treachery’ after It Downs Jet over Syrian Rebel Territory,’” Daily Mail, November 30, 2015, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3331558/Turkey-shoots-fighter-jet-Syrian-border-Local-media-footage-flaming-plane-crashing-trees.html accesses February 14, 2016.
[xx] Nancy A. Youssef, Michael Weiss, Tim Mak, “U.S. Admits: We Can’t Protect Syrian Allies From Russia’s Bombs,” The Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/01/u-s-admits-we-can-t-protect-syrian-allies-from-russia-s-bombs.html?via=newsletter&source=DDAfternoon , accessed October 5, 2015.
[xxi] Kristina Wong, “US Officials: Russia Is Not Striking ISIS Targets in Syria,” The Hill, October 1, 2015, http://thehill.com/policy/defense/255637-officials-russia-not-striking-isis-in-syria-despite-claims, accessed October 5, 2015.
[xxii] Youssef, et al, “U.S. Admits: We Can’t…”.
[xxiii]Ibid.
[xxiv] “Putin, Erdogan Discuss Syrian Crisis,” VOA, November 4, 2015, http://m.voanews.com/a/putin-erdogan-discuss-syrian-crisis/3036177.html, accessed November 4, 2015/.
[xxv] Nick Gutteridge, “ISIS Jihadis OBLITERATED: Putin Jets Blast Terrorist HQ in Syria with Bunker-buster Bombs,” The Express, October 4, 2015, http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/609665/Islamic-State-ISIS-command-post-destroyed-Russian-airstrike-Putin accessed October 6, 2015.
[xxvi] Douglas Woodward, “Is Gog Just a Turk?” Prophecy Watchers Magazine, October 2015, http://faith-happens.com/exposing-the-dark-forces-behind-gog-and-magog/, accessed October 6, 2015.
[xxvii]Michael Heiser, Islam and Armageddon, 73.
[xxviii] Ibid., 82–83.
[xxix] Woodward, “Is Gog Just a Turk?”
[xxx] Ibid.
[xxxi] Ibid.
[xxxii]Jack Smith, Islam the Cloak of Antichrist (Last Mile Books, 2011), 246, https://books.google.com/books/about/Islam_the_Cloak_of_Antichrist.html?id=ihvaoAEACAAJ.
[xxxiii]Benni Kleynhans, Die laastewaarskuwing, (V.G. Uitgewers, Springs, S.A, 1993). 54.
[xxxiv] “Church Says Russia Fighting ‘Holy Battle’ in Syria,” France 24, September 30, 2015, http://www.france24.com/en/20150930-church-says-russia-fighting-holy-battle-syria, accessed October 7, 2015.
[xxxv] Raymond Ibrahim, “RUSSIA DECLARES ‘HOLY WAR’ ON ISLAMIC STATE / While Obama Sides with Christian-murdering ‘Freedom Fighters,’” Front Page Magazine, October 7, 2015, http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260372/russia-declares-holy-war-islamic-state-raymond-ibrahim, as reprinted by The United Jerusalem Foundation, Paragraph 5, http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=1952135, accessed October 7, 2015.
[xxxvi]KesavanUnnikrishnan “Russia’s Orthodox Church Backs ‘Holy War’ against ISIS,” Digital Journal, October 4, 2015, http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/russian-orthodox-church-backs-holy-war-against-isis/article/445605, accessed October 7, 2015.
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