Several Christians are jumping on the bandwagon that teaches that the so-called "Anti-Christ" is the same as the Islamic Mahdi. The first people I heard teaching this were Ergun Caner and Walid Shoebat, both of whom have been exposed as false teachers and have refused to repent of their deception and other sins. Some Christians even claim that the Qu'ran speaks of the so-called "Anti-Christ" and his making a peace treaty with Israel and breaking it, etc., etc., etc. After doing a search online and visiting dozens of websites in order to find any verses quoted from the Qu'ran that teach such a thing, I came up empty handed. The Qu'ran contains no such verses! Various Hadiths, on the other hand, do.
The Sunni Muslims and the Shia Muslims both have differing views with regard to the Mahdi. One believes the Mahdi is beyond human while the other believes he is a normal human. One believes he will be their 12th prophet in a line descending from Muhammed while the other believes he will simply be a ruler of Islam. The idea that this Mahdi and the so-called "Anti-Christ" are one and the same is concocted from mere similarities in details. Similarities in detail prove nothing! Atheists find similarities between Jesus and Egyptian myths. Does that mean that Jesus and these Egyptian myths are one and the same? No, of course not!
In various Hadiths, Isa (Jesus) is said to return to aid the Mahdi. If the Mahdi is this so-called "Anti-Christ," then why is Jesus helping him? These Hadiths say that the Dajjal (Deceiver or Liar), or several Dajjal, will appear and speak against Allah and his prophet (Muhammed). They say that the Dajjal will deceive Jews, Christians, and Shiites. Apparently one detail regarding the Dajjal is that he will arrive on a white donkey. Jesus is said to return on a white horse. A donkey and a horse are two completely different things. But from this detail, these Christians claim that Dajjal is Jesus. If Isa is Jesus and is helping Mahdi, and if Isa battles against the Dajjal, how can Jesus be both Isa and Dajjal?
This new form of Dispensationalism is once again guilty of hermeneutical reaching by trying to force interpretations onto Scripture that are not natural. Not only that, but this teaching of the "Anti-Christ" and Mahdi being the same person is somewhere between 10 and 15 years old! Not only do Dispensationalists attempt to interpret Scripture based on news headlines, but now they are attempting to interpret Scripture based on outside texts that are not inspired simply because some details seem to be the same. Shall we use Egyptian myths and attempt to interpret Scripture, also?
The Qu'ran and the Islamic Mahdi have nothing to do with the Bible because the so-called "7-year Great Tribulation" and the so-called "Anti-Christ" do not exist in the Bible. These interpretations were imagined in the 1800s. Using a single Scripture reference from Revelation speaking of beheaded saints as a proof text is a sad example of eisegesis. The Roman Catholic Church during the Crusades and the Inquisition lived by the motto "Convert or die by the sword" just as Islam does today.