<a href=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s1554774.htm">The Religion Report, ABC Radio National

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Enter Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. He says he only wants a nuclear energy program for peaceful purposes, but he claims to be divinely inspired. He regularly refers to the imminent return of a Muslim Messiah figure called the Mahdi, signalling Armageddon and the end of the world. Rumour has it that when he was mayor of Teheran in 2004, he instigated the construction of a grand boulevard to welcome the Mahdi, and spent $17 million on a blue-tiled mosque in the city of Jamkaran, south of Teheran, that's closely associated with the cult of the Mahdi.

In September, he addressed the UN and ended his speech with a prayer calling on God to send the Mahdi soon, and he later told his supporters that while he was speaking to the General Assembly, he felt himself surrounded by an aura of heavenly light.

So this week on The Religion Report, we thought it would be interesting to look at the Islamic and especially Shi'ite apocalyptic tradition that President Ahmedinejad is appealing to. And lo and behold, we find that it's closely related to the apocalyptic tradition in Judaism and Christianity. For those of you, like me, who are bored to tears with all the comforting ecumenical talk we hear about Jews and Christians and Muslims all being children of Abraham, I hope the following conversation will suggest that there's something else that our three traditions have in common: the shared dream of Armageddon and world annihilation.

I spoke to a leading specialist on contemporary Muslim apocalyptic, David Cook, who's Assistant Professor of Religions Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and we began by talking about the similarities between Shi'ite Islam and Christianity.