The Twelfth Imam

This was a fantastic start to the series and far better than I expected from a political/prophetic thriller. Rosenberg pulls you in quickly with David Shirazi’s unique background and the high-stakes mission in Iran, then layers in the spiritual and prophetic elements in a way that feels tense rather than preachy. The rise of the mysterious “Twelfth Imam” is both fascinating and unsettling, and I loved how the book kept me questioning motives and allegiances the entire time.

What really worked for me was the mix of fast-paced espionage, real-world geopolitics, and characters wrestling with faith and doubt in the middle of chaos. The ending is a serious cliffhanger, but in a good way—it pushed me straight into the next book. As a show more series opener, this is a solid 5/5 for me: gripping, thought-provoking, and hard to put down. show less

This is a Mideast thriller that teaches readers to associate Muslims with the Antichrist. That is to say, it’s a malicious book that aims to mess with readers’ minds for the sake of an extremist agenda. Joel C. Rosenberg is a political organizer, filmmaker, and fiction writer who associates current events with End Times prophesy in the Bible. His core political principle is that the State of Israel can do no wrong.

Rosenberg’s 2002 novel The Last Jihad included (among its many baroque plot devices) a kamikaze mission involving a jet airliner. Rosenberg claims to have written that episode nine months before the actual attacks on the United States in September 2001. Ever since, he has been touted as a kind of prophet whose fiction show more anticipates current events.

Rosenberg, like a good Christian, humbly disclaims any such powers. His website, meanwhile, makes him out to be “a modern Nostradamus.”

Some of Rosenberg’s fans seem to be willing to take his fiction as “inspired.” Judging from online reviews, quite a few readers are willing to take The Twelfth Imam as a reliable guide to Islamic beliefs. It is anything but that.

As I said, this book distorts Muslim beliefs in a way that encourages readers to see Muslims as allies of Satan. The distortions appear deliberate and skillfully expressed, intended to mislead readers who crave reliable information about Islam. I can’t believe that the author just made honest mistakes, or intended it as “just a novel.” Since it appeared, Fox News commentator Glenn Beck has echoed the book’s thesis.

The “Twelfth Imam” is the villain of this tale — an evil Iranian who wins the unquestioning obedience of Iran’s leaders. He is also called the Mahdi. Muslims are supposed to have prayed for him to appear and bring about the Last Days. To this end, the fanatical rulers of Iran are cooking up nuclear weapons with which to attack Israel and the U.S. (Israel’s nuclear arsenal is invisible in this story.)

The Mahdi, it turns out, is the Antichrist of the Bible. Threfore, devout Muslims are all either dupes or willing servants of Hell. Judging from online reviews, this neat formula strikes many Christian readers with the force of revelation. The book even has quotes aplenty from the Bible and the Quran.

But here are the relevant facts:

1. About 1 in 10 Muslims believe in the Twelfth Imam. (They are called “Twelver” Shia.)

2. Most of the remaining 9 out of 10 Muslims accept the Mahdi, but don’t believe in the Twelfth Imam.

3. A greater number of Muslims (including all the “Twelver” Shias) believe in the Antichrist, whom they call al-Masih ad-Dajjal, “the False Messiah.”

4. Neither the False Messiah, the Mahdi, nor the Twelfth Imam is mentioned in the Quran. Not once. Muslims do not have to believe in any of them, just as Christians do not have to venerate saints or icons (although many do).

The Mahdi, you will notice, is not a stand-in for the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation. The Mahdi is an enemy of the False Messiah and a servant of the true Messiah, Jesus. Muslims’ core belief about the end of the world is that Jesus (not Muhammad) will return to earth to defeat the False Messiah.

Rosenberg manages to deflect his readers’ attention from all that. Instead, he susbstitutes a perverse, made-up caricature of Muslim belief — apparently because the real Muslim belief is too much like Christian belief. And we can’t have that, can we? Conservative Christians may have made room in their world for “righteous Jews,” but this book makes clear that there is no such space for “righteous Muslims.”

I don’t expect to change the minds of convinced readers with this short review. Anyway, Rosenberg is too slick for me. In lieu of actual facts, Rosenberg gives us a smart, sympathetic protagonist who devotes years of his young life to “research” about Islam. For readers immersed in the story, this fictitious research gives the feeling of having been personally convinced by proof. This feeling is not susceptible to rational argument.

Rosenberg knows what he’s doing, and he’s good at it. He’s too wily to turn out a book of unrelieved hatred, which might backfire by awakening readers’ consciences. Instead of asserting his doctrine, he makes masterful use of literary description to score propaganda points. He never says that Muslims are brainwashed, robotic fanatics for whom life has no meaning. He just arranges his Muslim characters in a frenzied mob, or sets up a vicious shooting, or a beheading, or a bizarre oath-taking scene in which the most powerful men in Iran cut their own palms and sign their names in blood. (To me, that last scene missed the mark: I couldn’t help thinking of Tom Sawyer playing pirate.)

The Twelfth Imam will be welcome to sunshine patriots, who want to confirm a childlike faith in (first) their country and (second) their own righteousness. The book is full of handy answers to nagging questions about the War on Terror™. For example:

Wondering why Osama bin Laden is still on the loose? It’s because the CIA has a Very Clever Plan to infiltrate al-Qaida with a super-smart Iranian-American Christian agent. This agent will win Bin Laden’s trust, then destroy him. But the mission takes years of specialized training, which is going on even as we speak.

Worried about your loss of privacy to a high-tech Homeland Security bureaucracy? Relax and feel reassured. Just like the hero, David Shirazi, you can welcome the feeling of being watched by the CIA. It just shows how prepared our great country is to grapple with satanic terrorists.

Worried about the spread of Islam in the U.S., and convinced that your president is really an African Muslim? Muslims may be exploiting our freedoms in their sinister plot to shove sharia down our throats. But have no fear, brethren. As this inspired book shows, Jesus Christ is appearing to people in visions, and people in the Middle East are risking their lives to escape Islam. So rest assured that you’re backing the right team.

Under the guise of Christian faith and “love for Israel,” The Twelfth Imam uses pulp fiction to sell a vicious stereotype. It would be naive not to see it as part of the juggernaut against “political Islam.” As we keep being reminded, there’s too much tolerance in America today. So we should choose what to believe about Muslims, not according to what’s true, but according to what makes Muslims appear mad, bad, and dangerous. Fiction like The Twelfth Imam is a great help to this effort. show less

This book was recommended to me by a friend and it took me nearly two years before I broke down and bought a copy to read, but I'm very glad I did. I'm hoping that Mr. Rosenberg did his homework and is portraying a fairly accurate view of Islamic messianic prophecy, and I realize from the book that not all Muslims follow this particular view; however, I found it extremely helpful in understanding the motivation underlying the jihadist movement. It gave me a look at the extremist Islamic movements that belies all our state department attempts to "make nice" with certain elements of Islamic countries. I would be interested in reading other books written by Rosenberg after reading this volume.

Amazing book. I did not know that it was a "part 1", so I was pretty sad to see that I now have to wait for the sequel!
I thought that the book explained a lot about the whole Twelfth Imam topic, something that I had only heard a small bit about in the past. It really helped me to see the end of times concept of the Muslims in conjunction with the end of times concept of Christianity.
The descriptions concerning the Muslim world were pretty accurate, in my opinion. We lived in the Middle East for 3 years, so I have a bit of reference on that.
I'm excited to read the next book....hurry, Joel, hurry!

Rosenberg creates an exciting thriller based on his understanding of the current state of religious fervor among certain sects in the leadership of Iran. The main character is a young man named David whose back story uniquely qualifies him to work for the CIA. He does so hoping that he can help hunt down Osama Bin Laden--but instead finds himself assigned as a field operator in Iran. There he discovers a plot to bring down the United States with nuclear weapons--but he also discovers religious fanatics, people having visions, and a mysterious figure called the twelfth Imam.
I greatly enjoyed the way Rosenberg set the story story up, giving David an emotionally charged backstory--with a nice romantic twist--before he took us into Iran and show more all of the visions and supernatural stuff started happening. By that time the characters were real to me and I was invested enough in their stories to follow them through the strange things that were happening. If you like fiction that grabs you this one certainly fits the bill--and I can't wait to see where this wild ride will end up for David and the other characters. show less

When I started this book, I wondered to myself how it could be the "thriller" that so many were calling it. I wasn't at all sure that I was riveted to the story, though I enjoyed how things were written and thought the characters were well developed. When it came down to the main action of the book, however, I realized how right the word "thriller" was. I literally couldn't get enough and was honestly holding my breath as I went along.

I was somewhat disappointed in the typical post September 11th portrayal of Muslims in general and the Muslim nation in particular. For example, the main CIA agent's family is supposed to be Muslim, yet he eats bacon one morning for breakfast as a kid, without any mention to the fact that he shouldn't or show more why it's normal for him. I also wasn't pleased with where the story went when it came to the Twelfth Imam. You start out reading and thinking that this will be a person bringing good change, and it turns out to be a story about Jesus the good against the Imam the evil, with mortal characters caught in between. The addition of Jesus and the Imam into the modern world was practically genius, however. I honestly enjoyed their introduction to the population of today's world.

I went through this book from cover to cover, taking it for what it was and enjoying it all the same. Not sure that I will pick up any more in the series, but that is more a personal choice based on the one feeling that I came away with at the end: The point of this book is mostly to tell you that the only "good" Muslim is one who has converted to Christianity. show less

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Title: The Twelfth Imam
Series: ------
Author: Joel Rosenberg
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Christian Thiller
Pages: 501
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Iran gets the Nuke. And at the same time, the fabled Twelfth Imam appears and begins working miracles. His goal is an Islamic Caliphate. That is The End.

We work up to that by following a young man affected by September 11 who vows to become a CIA agent so he can catch and bring to justice Bin Laden. At show more the same time we follow another young man, an Iranian, who is a genius and meets incarnations of the Iman through his growing up years, all in preparation to control a military nuclear weapon and the facilities needed to create such a thing.

Lots of clandestine'y things, very spy novel. Then BAM, the 12th Imam appears to the leader of Iran, takes over, takes over Saudi Arabia and threatens the world with 10 nuclear weapons if they don't let him do what he wants. But at the same time he's appearing all over the Middle East healing people and performing miracles.

Several of the characters meet Jesus and begin to realize that the 12th Imam is an agent of the devil, hence his power AND his threats.

My Thoughts:

I don't read many spy thrillers, so when I do read one, it's all brand new territory for me and I don't have any experience to rely on. I enjoyed this book. There was a lot of character creation going on and this time around it worked for me. Sometimes that type of thing bores me, but not this time.

From a Christian perspective, and certainly from a 7th Day Adventist perspective, this fits right in to End Times theology. Adventists believe [in very broad terms here] that in the Last Days, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims will all unite into one Feel Good, Love Everybody group that will deny, by their uniting, the Divinity & Authority of Jesus Christ and the Unalloyed Sovereignty of God [Jesus will be a Good Man and the Pope will be God's Voice, with all of His Authority, on Earth]. The particulars of this book are a bit out of date, as Bin Laden is wormfood. However, considering that I just read an article about the Lutherans and the Catholics trying to make nicey-nice and claiming Luther just “misunderstood” a few things 500 years ago and that there is a concerted effort to create harmony between the major Theistic religions [I've heard it called “ChrIslam”], I hesitate to call such views crackpot theories any more.

The ending was COMPLETELY open ended, but any other way would bog itself down in specific End Times theories. Those things can get messy and very ugly, very quickly. I'm just as happy he didn't try to write out his pet theory, as I probably would have disagreed and then ended the book on a sour note.

Rosenberg includes a lot of quotes from the Qu'ran but without a lot of context, I am hesitant to place very much weight on them. Kind of like those Hollywood movies where the Evil Cult Leader quotes 1 Bible verse and suddenly he's the Token Christian representing all of Christianity in the movie even while being the complete antithesis of an actual Christian. But enough was quoted to show that Rosenberg had done some homework and not just googled “Jihad, Qu'ran” and slap dashed in the first thing that came up. What he does quote is very rather damning though.

To end on a completely different note, I've read other books by a “Joel Rosenberg”, which were fantasy books and honestly, not that good. I'd always assumed that THIS Rosenberg was also THAT Rosenberg. However, upon investigation, THIS Rosenberg is Joel “C” Rosenberg and is an American. The OTHER Rosenberg is just plain Joel Rosenberg and he's Canadian.
Score One for America!
Score One for Nationalism!
Score One for Irony! [my dad's Canadian and I was born there]

★★★☆½ show less