Over 3 million Muslims from around the world marched through the desert valley outside of Mecca in Saudi Arabia on the first day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
With the sectarian viloence across the Islamic world, the bloodshed in Iraq, the potential war in the Palestinian territories, and a new war in Somoalia, tensions have increased between the two main sects of Islam, the Sunnis and the Shiites. Saudi Arabia's interior minister declared ahead of the rituals that his country would not allow for sectarian violence from any party during the Hajj season.
Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News
As millions of Muslims from around the world make their annual pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the prophetic scenario of the prophet, Joel comes better into focus.
One of the pillars of Islamic faith is to make the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in the lifetime of a Muslim if they are physically able. This year, sectarian tensions are so intense that the scene of the Hajj, Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is on high alert. Warned before hand by the Saudi officilas that any violence would not be tolerated, there is a calm among the Muslims that have arrived for the ritual, over threemillion Muslims from across the Islamic world. As any casual observer can see in our world today, Islam is at an all time high in visibility in world affairs; the Hajj only punctuates this fact.
The ancient Jewish prophets, though not mentioning Muslims by name, did refer to their present-day nations and the war-like scenario that is prevalent in the Islamic world today. In particular, Joel wrote 2,500 years ago of a mighty militia that would come together to attack the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people, that's Joel 2:2-3. Daniel 11, Ezekiel 38, and Psalm 83 list the Muslim nations that will be included in this attack. This Islamic violence and prominence in our world today should be of no surprise since the Lord Himself told Hagar, the mother of Ishmael - who would be the father of Islam today - that her son would be violent, raising his hand against every man, that's Genesis 16:11-12.
Indeed Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.
