Is Ahmadinejad unhinged? Or is he frighteningly hinged?

By Aussiegirl

Our good friend, Amil Imani, has written another important article about the motivations of Ahmadinejad. The West is making a big mistake if it dismisses this leader as an unhinged madman. He is very sane and acting in complete accordance with his beliefs. We must understand these beliefs if we are to prevail in this coming conflict with him. Remember in the movie Patton, when Patton yells out to Rommel -- "I read your book, you son-of-a-bitch!" -- So we must "read Ahmadinejad's book" in order to understand him and his war aims.

TA: Pres. Ahmadinejad of Iran

[...]Once again the West is misreading and misjudging the people and the events in the Middle East, due to the fact that it views things through its own prism. Looking at the man through the Western spectacles, he indeed appears to be all of the above. Yet Ahmadinejad is far from unhinged. As a matter of fact he is firmly hinged to a set of beliefs that dictate his views of the world and how he should deal with it from his position of power. An unhinged has the potential of being hinged.

But, there is very little that can be done to a person who is inseparably hinged. Ahmadinejad's views are firmly rooted in the most orthodox philosophy of Shiism.

To understand Ahmadinejad’s mind set and behavior one must scrutinize the elaborate and intricate theology of Hujetieh Shiism, perhaps the most fundamentalist of numerous Shiite sects.

For our purposes, however, it is sufficient to document the fact that Ahmadinejad is not unhinged. Unhinged is a derogatory term for a mentally disturbed. A prominent feature of a mentally disturbed is the display of contradictory thoughts and behavior. Ahmadinejad’s words, deeds and beliefs show he is a fully hinged. He is, to perception of many, may be hinged with dangerous and faulty ideas. Yet he is hinged.

There is a full internal consistency in Ahmadinejad. Here are a few examples of his sayings, beliefs and actions. Whether one agrees or disagrees with them, they all fit perfectly into a consistent pattern.

He literally believes in the imminent emergence of the Mahdi the Shiites promised one who is expected to appear to set aright a decadent and wretched world.
He views himself as the vassal of Mahdi, working for him and being accountable to him.
His main task is to prepare the world so to hasten the Mahdi's coming. If this preparation requires much destruction and bloodshed, so be it.
As a former mayor of Tehran, he developed elaborate detail plans preparing the city for the arrival of the Mahdi.
He allocated generous sums for extensive road improvement to a mosque at Jamkaaraan near the city of Qum where it is believed the promised Mahdi is hiding in a well since the age of nine over 1100 years ago.
He reportedly visits the well frequently and drops his written supplications into the well for the hidden Mahdi to act upon them.
He has said in private that it was him who asked the Mahdi to inflict the massive stroke on Ariel Sharon.
He sees the Jews as the sworn enemies of Islam. The hostility dates back to the time of Muhammad's own treatment of the Jews in Medina. At first, expediently, Muhammad called the Jews "people of the book," and accorded them a measure of tolerance until he gained enough power to unleash his devastating wrath on them.
He says that the Holocaust is a myth. He is, in this respect, in good company with a number of other revisionist claimants.
He wants Israel to be wiped out of the map or transferred to Europe.
In his speech at the UN general assembly, he implored the Mahdi to come and save the world. He claimed that during his speech of some twenty odd minutes, a powerful light enveloped him and all participants were held transfixed unable to move their eyes.
He believes that the earth is Allah's and all people must either become believers of his brand of Islam or must perish as infidels najis (unclean) who by their very presence defile Allah's earth.
He believes that this earthly life is passing and worthless in comparison to the afterlife awaiting a devoted and faithful believer. Hence, he holds to the old belief that if a faithful kills and infidel, he goes to Allah's paradise; and, if the faithful gets killed in the process of serving the faith, again he goes to Allah's paradise. It is a win-win proposition for the faithful.
There is nothing unhinged about Ahamadinejad's thinking, statements and actions. They are internally consistent. He is simply a fanatic who is wedded to an extremely dangerous exclusionary system of belief.[...]