Contemporary radical Muslim groups seeking to overthrow what they perceive as fundamentally unjust regimes in order to establish a shari‘a state use messianic language in their pronouncements. These pronouncements at the same time feed off the well-known beliefs of both Christian evangelicals (frequently in the news, and often translated into Arabic) as well as Jewish messianic groups, demonizing them in order to create a coherent and plausible enemy. In the short term, radical Muslim groups often see themselves as actually fulfilling the predictions of end-time warfare described in the...

Contemporary radical Muslim groups seeking to overthrow what they perceive as fundamentally unjust regimes in order to establish a shari‘a state use messianic language in their pronouncements. These pronouncements at the same time feed off the well-known beliefs of both Christian evangelicals (frequently in the news, and often translated into Arabic) as well as Jewish messianic groups, demonizing them in order to create a coherent and plausible enemy. In the short term, radical Muslim groups often see themselves as actually fulfilling the predictions of end-time warfare described in the seventh- and eighth-century tradition literature, after some reinterpretation. Part of the radical message therefore is an attempt to gain legitimacy through such fulfillment of prophecy, as well as holding out the messianic state as an idealized future in order to gain support.