My relationship with the Islamic Antichrist theory is complex

To a large extent it's a theory I don't want to be true.  All the contemporary political agendas and fear mongering that are assumed to be behind the desire to create an Islamic Antichrist theory are things I oppose.  I'm politically a left learning libertarian, I don't think Islam is an inherently more violent religion then most.  And I certainly didn't vote for Donald Trump.

It would be nice if speculating that these Prophecies could be fulfilled by a Muslim didn't connect to Anti-Muslim or Anti-Arab bigotry any more then the Nicolai Carpathea theory is bigotry against Blonde Haired Blue Eyed Europeans.  But we don't live in a perfect world.  In western fiction, unless the author is explicitly trying to be progressive, white villains are never assumed to be evil because of their whiteness, but with minority villains that subtext is always there a little whether the writer intends that or not.  And it's not a coincidence that popular theories about the Antichrist echo those Super Villain tropes.  When he's White he's Lex Luthor or Chancellor Palpatine, but when he's not he's Fu Manchu.

Fortunately I'm an Evangelical Universalist now, I don't think people who accept the Mark are damned to hell for all of eternity, I don't even think the Antichrist and False Prophet themselves will be. Therefore I need not view them as cartoon villains.  So I certainly don't want any Antichrist theory I might advocate to be viewed as demonizing any people groups who would share either a spiritual or physical kinship with that hypothetical Antichrist.

There is nothing in The Bible that says The Antichrist will follow a religion that won't exist till over 500 years after Revelation was written.  But in general The Bible doesn't talk about The beast's religion, it says he will in some way deify himself at some point, but that doesn't tell us what his original religious affiliation will be.

There are plenty of Prophecies that can be taken as geographical clues, and most of them point to places that have been Islamic regions for a long time now and aren't likely to change any time soon.  Babylon/Assyria, Edom, Egypt, Syria, ect.  Only Greece and Rome aren't, but those don't have any solid witnesses outside symbolic visions in Daniel and Revelation drawing on Daniel. 

And my research has lead me to evidence that Arabia itself has a role to play in prophecy.  It's research I've been doing mainly for the purpose of hoping to emphasize positive common ground between Islam and the Judeo-Christian tradition.   But a lot of the good things in The Bible have a dark-side as well.  And so even the evidence for Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea possibly being in Arabia, leads to reminders of the Golden Calf incident and Korah's Rebellion, and what typological relevance they could have for the Image of the Beast and the references to the Wilderness in Revelation.

Back to the subject of Greece and Rome, the Roman Empire grew to include many of the now Islamic regions alluded to above, and parts of southern Italy were under Islamic Control for some of the middle ages.  And much of what Greece meant in Antiquity is now part of Turkey.  Not to mention how Islam is a fast growing religion in modern Europe.

Those statistics are often exaggerated as part of Islamiiphobic fear mongering from the Right.  But are also something the Left will point out as a good sign that the world is becoming more diverse.  I don't care one way or the other, and am only interested in terms of what it might mean for Bible Prophecy.

Now my recent post about The Beast possibly using the Name of YHWH or a Yah Theophoric name,  might at first glance conflict with an Islamic Antichrist view since Muslims are often hostile to that name.  However there are some exceptions to that general trend, particularly in Shia traditions.

( إذا أذَن الإمام , دعا الله بإسمه العبراني  ( كتاب الغيبة للنعماني

Al-Mufadhal ibn Umar is reported to have said  that Abu Abdullah [a.s.] (Shia’s 6^th Imams) said: “When the Imam (Mahdi) makes a call (for prayer), he will supplicate to God using God's Hebrew name...” (Al-Numani, Al-Ghayba , p.326)

And another quote about the Imam's own Name implies it'll be treated similarly to the Holy Name.

  مهدي الشيعة لا يحل ذكر اسمه ومن سماه ملعون (بحار الأنوار 51/33)

According to Al-Majlisi’s Bihar Al-Anwar, Vol. 51, page 33, it is not permissible to mention the name of the Shia’s Mahdi and whoever refers to him by his name shall be cursed.

And these quotes are emphasized by that Sunni Websites that thinks the Dajjal will be the Shiite Imam Mahdi.

The way I would make an Islamic Antichrist argument is different from the major people doing so already like Walid Shabbat and Perry Stone.  Not just in terms of my tone towards Islam in general, but also in the Biblical Arguments I'd make.  Which is made clear in my past posts on this tag.

I still don't consider it the most likely option, the theory that The Beast will be teaching something similar to the Hebrew Roots movement is still more likely in my view.  But it's become the second mostly likely model I think.  Certainly more Biblically supportable then the Left Behind model.