PS
@mattfivefour -- Just a brief background on where I might stand on AC as a Muslim leader perspective. I don't think so. In my final years at GCC (Macarthur's church) I sat in the parking lot reading Galatians 4. And thought, wow, I wonder if all these Muslims moving into the Western world is some kind of echo like standoff of emerging of Christianity and Islam (like Ishmael vs Issaac). And at the time (this was prior to a shift in Christianity to consider a Califate AC version). I shared with some I thought what might be happening in the world seems to be some kind poetic revisit to Gal 4 attesting to this very biblical theme of the children of the flesh being against the children of the spirit kind of vibe...but like on a global scale. Like, did God just make the West a living pop-up book version of Galatians 4 and revisit to the Abraham/Issac story testify of its genuine origin to still centuries later to still be so vividly seen and something to have to deal with in our age. As I look back, this seems to be a globalist ploy (the Arab Spring) in cultural merge than perhaps some Crusades Age like standoff.
A couple years later (in my very last months at GCC) this teaching became popular there. That the AC would be the 12th Emam. By this time I think I already got that whole "Muslim world shift into the West theme" thing out of my system. Just thinking "then" maybe 50 years later what the world might look like if that continued. GCC shifted toward the Muslim AC concept from that of the Pope. Of course the pope being AC is a very old reformed trope. But I never really saw the pope as a candidate for AC. Maybe false prophet. But seeing GCC going from one version of seeing the AC to another did not impress me very much. Inside i was tapping my foot wondering where they were a few years back in getting a hold of what it might mean to see the West actually become Muslim nations...lol.
The way i look at that now, a Muslim AC, is kind of the same way i might look at the AC being a Jewish leader. If so, it would be in what God might provide. But i don't see the AC as a Jewish leader or an Islamic one. I guess I would see both of those views as extremes or eschatological crutches of need to have some level of certainty. The one feature I might share with the Islam as AC view is not that the AC will be Muslim. I think Daniel 11:37 rules out both Jewish and Islamic avenues in that. Plus the way God shows "the little" horn motif is not seemingly from a religious order (consistent with Daniel 11:37). I guess I just chalk up the AC as Muslim view as the part of the house we have to walk through that has cloths and food thrown all over the place. My view on AC that shares a fraction with the heretical view (although i am not convinced i observed this from Joel--I normally stay away from his eschatology)? Daniels statue has two legs. I believe most see this as Rome. Both legs. I would lean toward Constantinople (Istanbul) as one of the legs and not both Rome. In that sense the AC to me could arise from the East or the West. Unless there are other scriptures to rule that out. If so, i am open. I went to that forum link you posted pastor to see if there was any low hanging fruit research revealing a take on the two legs of Daniel concept. But i did not see any. What i did find was pretty interesting. Thanks for posting that link
I don't go all that hardcore study on the AC because the church won't be here. And there is too much fascination with it. I think there are other things to focus on that could bring more clarity than an extremely difficult one as the very ID of the AC. If we look at how confused the world and the church is just post COVID? Good luck to us thinking we can know who the AC is. But then again, the tribulation saints will. No doubt. So there is that.
I just wanted to conclude this post with something stated in the Who's Who section you mentioned. This was under Joel Richardson...
FROM WHO IS WHO ESCHATOLOGICAL FORUM LINK
"While a number of prophecy scholars disagree, his research is a worthwhile study, though he agrees with a post-tribulation rapture view. He is co-founder with Dalton Thomas of Maranatha, a global fellowship of churches and ministries at maranathaglobal.com."
Blessings.