The Man Who Set the Middle East on Fire

On December 16, 2010, Mohammed Bouazizi was an unknown 26-year-old street vendor trying to make a living in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. It wasn’t an easy life. Selling vegetables from a wooden cart isn’t exactly lucrative. And rampant government corruption and regular mistreatment by the police made earning a living all the more difficult.

On December 17, a cantankerous policewoman decided to confiscate Bouazizi’s cart, his vegetables and his livelihood. Although he offered to pay the fine, the policewoman refused his offer and “allegedly slapped the scrawny young man, spat in his face, and insulted his dead father” (Time, Jan. 21, 2011).

Bouazizi then took his complaint to the local authorities, but they refused to see him.

This is when Bouazizi snapped. Within the hour, he returned to the municipal building and proceeded to calmly and quietly douse himself with fuel. He then pulled out a match and set himself on fire.

Needless to say, Bouazizi finally got the attention of Tunisian authorities!

Bouazizi didn’t just set himself ablaze that day. He set the city of Sidi Bouzid ablaze with massive protests and riots, then many other cities in Tunisia, and ultimately the whole nation of Tunisia. By the end of January 2011, the revolution had claimed the government of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

And that was just the start. Bouazizi’s actions and the Tunisian revolution quickly captured the imaginations of millions of angry, disgruntled Arabs throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The revolutionary spark spread, first to Libya, then Egypt, then Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Sudan, and the list goes on.

Today, this massive wave of social and political revolution is known as the Arab Spring.

The consequences have been profound. Long-standing governments in such important places as Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have been toppled. Muslim populations and Islamic values, politics and policies have risen to prominence. Most significantly, these Arab revolutions have created political and ideological vacuums.

In many instances, such as Egypt, these power vacuums have been filled by radical Islam!

Everyone agrees that the Arab Spring is transforming North Africa and the Middle East. Governments are recalculating foreign policies. Alliances are changing. New forces of destruction are developing. New strategies are forming.

Where will it end?

Enter Bible Prophecy

As the Arab Spring gained momentum, it quickly became evident that major Bible prophecies were being fulfilled. For example, the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was an event Gerald Flurry and the Trumpet prophesied for two decades.

In a July 1993 Trumpet article, Mr. Flurry wrote: “Islamic extremism is gaining power at a frightening pace in Egypt …. There is a prophecy that indicates Egypt will probably fall to Islam—or be strongly influenced by Islam.”

With the Arab Spring, suddenly it was happening!

That forecast was based on a prophecy delivered by the Prophet Daniel in Daniel 11:40-45. So, when the Arab Spring began, just a few weeks before it claimed the government of Hosni Mubarak, Mr. Flurry was compelled to return and restudy Daniel’s prophecy.

As he studied, he began to understand the Daniel 11 prophecy more deeply than he had before. For years he had been explaining how this prophecy centered on a radical Islamic alliance behind Iran, which included Egypt. But in January 2011, at the very start of the Arab Spring, Mr. Flurry came to see the significance of the two other nations featured in Daniel’s prophecy. These nations were also prophesied to fall to radical Islam and eventually align themselves with the Iran-led king of the south.

On January 27, Mr. Flurry taped a Key of David television program on the Arab Spring. In this program he referred to these two other countries specifically mentioned in Daniel 11:40-44: Libya and Ethiopia. He asked, “Now, why would God have those two nations mentioned in there?”

That television program marked the first time Mr. Flurry told viewers that Libya and Ethiopia (including Eritrea) would fall under the influence of radical Islam and develop an alliance with Iran.

At the time, there was very little evidence this might happen, especially in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Two weeks later, massive protests erupted in Benghazi, and the Arab Spring reached Libya’s shores. Civil war ensued, quickly forcing the United Nations to join the fight on the side of the rebels. By October, Libya’s civil war was over, and strongman Muammar Qadhafi was gone. The nation was left in tatters, totally vulnerable to Iran and radical Islam!

Meanwhile, in Ethiopia, nothing was happening. This predominantly Christian, strongly pro-Western country remained stable and content. Neither the Arab Spring nor radical Islam appeared to be taking root in this strategically important nation. Or so it seemed.

In the time since, the truth has emerged that Ethiopia (and Eritrea) is under increasing pressure from Iran and radical Islam.

Although we haven’t witnessed a Muslim uprising there as we have in Libya or Egypt, it is obvious that the seeds of an Islamist resurgence in Ethiopia have been sown!

Very few are reporting on it, but Ethiopia is being sucked into the vortex of the Arab Spring and Islamist renaissance under way in North Africa and the Middle East. You need to understand the enormous prophetic implications of this event.

What you are about to read is a compilation of Trumpet article excerpts tracking the fulfillment of Mr. Flurry’s Bible-based forecast about Ethiopia, Eritrea and Libya.

We begin with Mr. Flurry’s first and most important article, originally written in January 2011 and published in the April 2011 issue of the Trumpet. The articles after that contain proof—hard evidence—testifying to the accuracy of that original prophecy.