On today's edition of his Fox News show, Glenn Beck tied Islam to the Antichrist described in the New Testament. He even had a side-by-side comparison of the Antichrist and the “12th Imam” or “Mahdi” (terms Beck uses interchangeably to describe the figure many Muslims believe will guide believers in the end times) on his chalkboard.

And to help Beck discuss this connection, Beck hosted Joel Richardson, an anti-Muslim activist who says that Satan will use Islam “to fulfill the prophesies of the Bible” and has written a column headlined “What Obama and the Antichrist have in common.”

Here's Beck's chalkboard:

Although Beck says during the show that only a minority of Muslims have beliefs that should scare you, Richardson makes no such disclaimer. Rather, Richardson suggests that all Muslims (or at least all orthodox Muslims) desire the return of the Antichrist. Here are a couple of things he said:

• “You have the bad guy of the Bible. He primarily persecutes God's people, the Jews and the Christians. ... [The imam] likewise causes Jews and Christians either to submit to Islam or be killed. ... It's abundantly found throughout the Islamic sacred traditions known as the Hadith.”
• “According to the Bible, the mark of the beast is a mark that is put on the foreheads that essentially condemns someone to hell. On the Islamic side, the Muslims have picked up on this tradition, except in Islamic tradition, the beast is a good guy, and he marks the foreheads of all true Muslims, and so, in essence, Muslims are desiring that they would receive the mark of the beast.”
• “On the biblical side, Jesus returns to deliver his people from having been defeated and crushed, persecuted. On the Islamic side, the Muslim Jesus returns and tells the Christians of the world, you've had it wrong all along. Your Bible is corrupt. I never claimed to be the son of God. I never died on the cross. Islam is the true religion. Follow the Mahdi or die.”
• “Most orthodox Muslims would say that this is sacred scripture that you cannot discard.”

One more point: During the segment Beck also hosted Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim. Jasser said that “The Quran talks about a few signs of the end of times, but most of the details you gave are from the Hadith,” the oral sayings and deeds of Muhammad that are treated as holy by Muslims. Jasser continued: “Reform is I think going to happen in Islam when we start to discard parts of the Hadith that are not legitimate, that have been fabricated. And this is where there is some disagreement. So some of these stories come out of, I think, illegitimate Hadith, but others may be legitimate.”

This is where Richardson states: “Most orthodox Muslims would say that this is sacred scripture that you cannot discard. He's essentially saying that it's discardible.” So, Richardson is basically telling Jasser (a Muslim) that the more peaceful view of Islam is un-orthodox and that traditional Muslims hope to be united under the rule of the Antichrist who will kill Jews, Christians and nonbelievers. And Beck has given him a platform on national television.

Video from tonight's show below the fold: