End Times, Koranic Edition

The United States will be destroyed in 2007 by tsunamis, according to Palestinian Koranic scholar Ziad Silwadi. He is convinced that passages in the Koran that deal with the divine punishment of terrible sin are actually about the U.S.; in the usual manner of millennialists, Silwadi has performed a series of arcane calculations to arrive at the precise date of catastrophe. He's published his findings because "what is about to happen is extremely shocking and frightening."

Silwadi thinks the proud and arrogant U.S. will be drowned for its many sins, in the same way that proud and arrogant Pharaoh was drowned. However, the scholar seems to have mixed feelings about the matter. "[T]he world would be better off with a US that is not a superpower and that does not take advantage of weak nations," he says. On the other hand, "The world will certainly lose a lot if and when this disaster occurs because of the great services that American society has rendered to the economy, industry and science."

The Jerusalem Post reports that his study "has caught the attention of millions of Muslims worldwide," whatever that means.