Chasing the apocalypse: Radical Shiite clerics on American soil preach prophetic showdown with US
Fox News Digital investigation shows hardline Shiite ideologues framing conflict between US, Iran as prophecy for the arrival of the Mahdi, or 'messiah'
Asra Q. Nomani By Asra Q. Nomani Fox News
Published March 2, 2026 7:00am EST
Iranians seen around the world celebrating death of Ayatollah Khameini
MANASSAS, Va. – FIRST ON FOX: For many, the war with Iran — and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — might seem like the climactic end to a long, brutal reign of terror by the theological clerics who have run the country since 1979.
But a Fox News Digital investigation reveals that, for certain hardline Shiite ideologues, including in the U.S., this is not an ending but a prophetic showdown that will usher in the arrival of the "Mahdi," a messiah, according to Islamic eschatology, or the theology of end times.
In this prophecy, Mahdi will emerge to battle Dajjal, the Islamic equivalent of the Antichrist, in a final battle of Armageddon. For many of these ideologues, President Donald Trump is Dajjal.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/chasing-apocalypse-radical-shiite-clerics-american-soil-preach-prophetic-showdown-us
