It didn’t to me until I happened to be channel surfing and caught part of Glen Beck’s program on CNN. After doing some research, I discovered that the above-mentioned date on the Muslim calendar is August 21, 2006 — the anniversary of when the Angel Gabriel dispatched Mohamed on his ascension into heaven from Jerusalem. On that night the Prophet was said to have risen within a blindingly bright light illuminating the sky, visited the House of Happiness and the House of Misery, and then reappeared in Mecca.
Is it just coincidence that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran named August 22 specifically to answer calls to curb his nationÂ’s nuclear program? A date suspiciously months after the international demand was made? The question has to be asked, is he planning to light up JerusalemÂ’s night sky with a nuclear blast, as several people have theorized, or is this just a bluff to get the world's worried attention back and increase his prestige currency with Islamic extremists?