By Denko Maleski
Accompanied by the wail of a siren, loudspeakers from the U.S. embassy compound at Castle echoed across the sunny Saturday that had just passed: “Duck, take cover, move away from the windows and wait for further instructions…”
An attack? It was, in fact, a drill—although I did not hear the phrase that used to accompany such moments over the years: “This is a drill.”
After a while, everything calmed down, and along the path by the Vardar River, a chorus of muezzins from the mosques in Čair could be heard.
In the context of the war in Iran and the killing of the religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei, I find myself reflecting… Here we are again at the “end of history.” But unlike three decades ago, when we believed in the definitive victory of liberal democracy and peace, today the introduction of an eschatological element into the political narrative has merged with the sound of the drums of war.
Eschatology, as you know, is a branch of theology dealing with the end of time. Each of the three major religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—speaks of Judgment Day, when the Messiah, Jesus Christ, or the Mahdi will return to lead believers in the battle of good against evil and establish justice in the world.
That wars among Muslims and Jews can take on the tone and passion of a “holy war” I sensed already in early childhood when I lived in the Middle East, in Beirut, Lebanon. I felt it in the loud applause of Arab audiences in cinemas whenever Adolf Hitler appeared in a newsreel, or in the reproachful gaze of a shopkeeper toward me—a ten-year-old dark-haired boy from Skopje—accompanied by the words that I should respect my Arabic language and Islamic faith instead of speaking English.
Donald Trump’s reckless war against Iran has opened the gates of hell and could easily turn into a religious war—one of the bloodiest known in history. Let there be no doubt: this is a conflict that could become a prelude to World War III.
Grand Ayatollahs Hamedani and Shirazi have already issued fatwas calling on their followers around the world to take revenge against Israel and the United States. Drawing on holy scriptures, eschatological wars are not merely political or territorial conflicts; they are battles commanded by God himself, calling for the final confrontation between good and evil—a struggle that will determine the future of humanity.
While such apocalyptic narratives are more or less familiar to us among Jews and Muslims, we know far less that evangelical Protestant theology in America also invokes the Book of Revelation, which speaks of Judgment Day and the final reckoning between good and evil—the Battle of Armageddon that, coincidentally or not, is to take place in the Middle East.
I would not have taken this Christian eschatology seriously had I not heard the statement of former British diplomat and expert on international politics and the Middle East, Alastair Crooke, which froze the blood in my veins.
I tried to verify this information, but artificial intelligence refused to cooperate on issues related to conditions within the U.S. military.
What is this about?
According to Crooke, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, reportedly instructed commanders in the American military to brief soldiers that this is a war of God, that Trump is an instrument of God, and that this final battle is written in the Bible.
I understand there have been many protests within the U.S. military against introducing such an eschatological element into U.S. policy, intended as a counterweight to Islamic jihad. But since such a message to the military could not have been sent without the approval of the U.S. president, I am seriously concerned about the mental health of the President of the United States, Donald Trump.