Recently the official Iranian tv claimed the emerging of the 12th Imam was imminent (watch video below). Who is the 12th Imam (aka “Muhammad al-Mahdi”) and why is this so important to the islamic world?
In islamic faith the 12th Imam is the true saviour of all muslims.

He will unite all muslim nations and defeat all “infidels” and will lead islam to victory in the last days. In my opinion this figure - as a companion of the antichrist - will be the second beast that is mentioned in Revelation 13.
 

-The Lord says in Isaiah 55:8,9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”€� Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”€� If we believe the word of God, then we must understand that all power rests in the hands of Christ, and that the Lord´s ways, thoughts, and methods are so far above ours that we cannot understand them completely. World events, therefore, as we usher in the end times and see prophecies maturing to fulfillment, will not be as man wishes them to be, nor will they be as they appear.

The Western world looks at the Middle East and wants to believe that the protests to topple the governments in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and others are freedom driven. They may just be in the minds of those who are protesting, but the freedom they are desiring is not the same as Western freedom as upheld in a Constitutional Republic or a representative democracy. It is the freedom of Islam, the peace of Islam. This freedom is the freedom of the made up and revamped moon god, allah, as defined by a deranged warlord and pedophile Mohammed in the 7th century. This so-called freedom is determined by Sharia law, where women and non-Muslims are subject to the Islamic Caliphate.

Islam´s eschatology is similar to Christianity. Like most things of satan, however, Islam is an imitation leading many into deception. The 12th Imam is expected to return in the end times and bring the peace of Islam to the world for seven years with Jesus Christ as his prophet. On the 32nd anniversary of the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad gave a speech that the unrest in the Middle East is the beginning of the return of the 12th Imam. He said, “The final move has begun.”