Nadia,
Most of the ‘Christian extremists’ that you mentioned are from South of United States. Living in the ‘Bible belt’ I have had extensive discussions with them on their belief. Most of them follow one or the other form of Protestant Christian beliefs & label themselves as part of the Southern Baptist Convention. The likes of Pat Robertson & Jerry Farwell are among the leaders of such organizations & movements. If you follow the best sellers of different brand name book stores, you must be familiar with the on going series of books called ‘Left Behind’ by Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins. The fictional story of these books is based on Christian belief of the Armageddon, second coming of Jesus and the judgment day.
Their belief in essence is not very different from the main stream Islamic view of the second coming of Jesus (as).
In their view, in order for Jesus to return to this world, all/most of the Jews must be present in/around the “Holy Land” as is described in the prophecies of Revelations. Then there will be the great Armageddon where the Christians will have to fight the ‘infidels’ which most of them believe to be the “Muslims Extremists” along with the Jews. To save the world & mankind from the greatest turmoil, Jesus will return & explain to the Jews, Christians & heathens what “the truth” is. Then those who will follow him will be taken to the “promised land” & the rest will be “left behind”. Then the judgment day will start with Jesus leading the war against the Infidels & non-believing Jews & when it will be over Jesus will hold the proceedings of the pre-judgment day.
They all don’t agree on details of these events, but Jews being in Holy Land, the Armageddon, Jesus’s return from the heaven & him siding with the “pious” Christians is fundamental to all their belief. Muslims don’t put Jews in the picture, only sight that Jesus will return when Muslims will have no hope (and the scale of the “hope” is relative to who you talk to) and will be on their side. He is supposed to kill the swine, break the cross, he will wage a war & kill all those who will not believe in Islam, rule for 40 years and then die.
There is this beast Anti-Christ that also has to appear, which Muslims & Christians believe to be a person who will be the leader of ‘infidels’ & will appose Jesus.
Zionist Jews have actually taken great advantage of the Christian beliefs. Even though very few of them believe in coming of a “Messiah” but those who do believe in his emergence (not descending) believe him to be the crown of the newly evolved Jewish state. According to them the Messiah will take the Jewish state to the glory of the time of Solomon & David.
It’s very common to find ads on American Cable networks, where leaders of these Christians Extremists, will be asking for money to get the “persecuted Jews’ from places like Russia & Eastern Europe to go Israel – which according to them is ‘their land’ and a ‘land of peace’.
The current Bush administration has a big voter base in these regions and even if many of the ‘officials’ in the administration do not believe in that doctrine or consider the current Middle East crisis as part of the bigger picture, still have to sway their vote with the Zionists. Otherwise they will lose the very crucial Electoral College support that probably swept them into power in the past two elections.
Really appreciate your taking the time to explain it all to me.