Solsticewitch13's BOS: Apocalypse NOW: The battle sites that ISIS predict will bring about the end of the world

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Apocalypse NOW: The battle sites that ISIS predict will bring about the end of the world

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/601641/Islamic-State-apocalypse

DERANGED Islamic State (ISIS) leaders have predicted the world will come to a brutal and bloody end with an almighty clash between jihadist and 'infidel' armies in the heart of Europe.

By Tom Batchelor

PUBLISHED: 08:01, Sun, Aug 30, 2015 | UPDATED: 10:25, Sun, Aug 30, 2015

EXPRESS

ISIS fighters and vehicles have been engaged in combat across the Middle East

The savage terror group was founded on the belief that all civilisations will crumble in an imminent apocalypse, with their wild theory also identifying four likely locations for a battle they claim will bring about the end of the world.

Three of those sites exist in the Middle East, including two in Syria and one in Israel.

But the fanatics have also pinpointed Italy's capital Rome as the site of another great clash between their soldiers and the West.

The Eternal City - Rome - is on the ISIS hitlist

"The Muslim armies are supposed to take over Rome, and eventually they are supposed to take over the whole world," explained William McCants, a US expert on jihadism, who has written a new book on the ISIS obsession with the apocalypse.

They see this battle as culminating soon in the great clash between the Muslim army of the Islamic world and the Christian armies of the West

William McCants, terror expert

"The group believes that Muslims will conquer the Italian capital in the course of conquering the entire world. There will be an ultimate victory for Islam and then the end of the world comes."

ISIS may claim that the end is nigh, but unsurpisingly their senior leaders - such as US most-wanted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi - have failed to put an exact date on it.

In fact, according to the terror group, the apocalypse doesn't have a fixed date.

AFP

ISIS supporters in Syria

The ISIS expert told Express.co.uk: "They don't put any dates on it, what they do is peg it to events and geographic locations that are mentioned in Islamic prophecy."

Key among those locations is the tiny town of Dabiq in northern Syria, which the murderous regime believes will host a "major apocalyptic showdown with the armies of the infidel".

ISIS claim the battle will erupt in a field outside the small town, which in 2004 recorded a population of just 3,000 people.

ISIS evens named its terrorist propaganda and recruitment magazine after the settlement, which lies around six miles from the Turkish border.

EXPRESS

Map of the region

AFP

An ISIS flag flies after the group captured the Syrian town of Kobane

Jihadists believe the Prophet Muhammed is said to have remarked that "the last hour will not come" until an army vanquishes the Romans at "Dabiq or Al-A'maq".

Also highlighted as a potential flashpoint is a town just outside the Syrian capital Damascus, while Jerusalem in Israel also gets a mention as the potential epicentre of an apocalyptic clash.

But most worrying to those in the West is the suggestion that Rome could also be targeted.

Fanatics have taken chilling pictures of ISIS sympathisers posing with jihadi signs in the Italian capital, with extremists warning that they are counting down to "zero hour" when they will strike.

GETTY

Jerusalem in Israel is also listed as the site of an apocalyptic battle

The group has threatened to bring in Sharia law in the city and even promised to throw gay people from the Leaning Tower of Pisa - not realising the structure is nowhere near Rome.

There have also been threats made against the Pope, whose official residence is in the Vatican City.

"In their propaganda, they see themselves waging a war against a crusader alliance, between the US and the UK and other countries of the West that is seeking to eradicate Islam," Mr McCants said.

"They see this battle as culminating soon in the great clash between the Muslim army of the Islamic world and the Christian armies of the West.

"And this confrontation is going to take place along the eastern Mediterranean - so Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo - but they will also take the fight to Rome."

AFP

ISIS fighters in trucks in Syria

And ISIS supporters believe the final battle could be coming sooner rather than later.

According to their theory, "nations gathering under 80 flags will confront the Muslim armies".

For many jihadists, the alliance of Western and other powers against ISIS in bombing raids over Iraq and Syria is seen as the fulfilment of that prophecy.