ISIS wants a President Trump. Perhaps this is part of the reason: [View all]

[cali]

So obviously this is opinion, conjecture, and it’s born out of my field of study and a long time fascination with apocalyptic thinking and movements. In 1998 I wrote my thesis on Millenarianism at the turn of the Millennium.

Just as nearly all religions have a creation myth, so too do they nearly all have end time myths, and the latter are often an end and a reset- to put it inelegantly.

The plethora of jihadist attacks over the past several months are, I believe, in part because ISIS and others of their ilk want a Trump Presidency.

Why? They are, as the late great British historian, Norman Cohn, millenarians. The definition of Millenarianism has long been expanded beyond Christian eschatology. Cohn’s definition of millenarian is as follows:

Millenarial sects or movements always picture salvation as

a) collective, in the sense that it to be enjoyed by the faithful as a collectivity:

b) terrestrial, in the sense that it is to widely realized on this earth and not some other worldly heaven;

c) imminent, in the sense that it is to come both soon and suddenly;

d) total, in the sense that it is utterly to transform life on earth so that the new dispensation will be no mere improvement on the present but perfection itself;

e) miraculous, in the sense that it is to accomplished by or with the help of supernatural agencies.


They want an all out war such as that promised by Donald Trump. They believe that he will be a hugely effective recruiting tool for them.

Millenarian movements, such as the medieval ones examined in Cohn’s seminal work ‘Pursuit of the Millennium’, are invariably shot through with the insane. But they are often born not just out of religious fervor but perceived and/or real injustice and persecution. Indeed, there are millennial movements that are non-religious.
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http://notbored.org/cohn.html
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/aug/09/guardianobituaries.obituaries