The radicalization of Iraqi politics that has contributed to the current crisis in the country can be better understood with an appreciation of the role of Islamic messianism, especially among Iraqi Shiites. This trend may even be more prominent, because if there is a battle for Baghdad, it will be fought along religious and sectarian lines.

The advent of saviors is one of the salient features of all Abrahamic religions, and is an idea that manifested itself differently in all three of those religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This idea grows and evolves throughout history, usually as a result of harsh social and political circumstances that drove people into seeking divine intervention from a heavenly emissary that would restore the tide of history back onto the righteous path.

In Islam, the concept of a savior appeared in the form of one of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandchildren named Mahdi, who would return at the end of times to save the world. The Shiites are not the only sect who believe in the Mahdi (the Guided One), for Sunnis also have similar — yet slightly different — beliefs that led to Sunni models of Mahdism. The latter includes the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi movement (Al-Mahdiyya), which was established in Sudan in the 19th century, and the Juhayman al-Otaibi movement in Saudi Arabia, which occupied the Grand Mosque in Mecca for two weeks in 1979.

Mahdism garners greater acceptance and attraction in Iraq, where the social, political and economic tragedies that have befallen the country for a long time have led people to despair and seek solace in mythological solutions that promise salvation from widespread corruption and injustices. The Salafist tendencies that have permeated Shiite society in the past decades have strengthened the appeal of Mahdism in those societies and confirmed the imminent arrival of the Mahdi — a momentous event that those movements consider themselves responsible for paving the way for. Among the most prominent examples of this undertaking is the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which built its state on the basis that it represents the Mahdi, with the supreme leader who serves as deputy to the Mahdi, thus paving the way for the latter’s arrival.