As has already been mentioned on this thread, one of the most famous 33 Degree Freemasons of all time was Albert Pike. His book 'Morals and Dogma', first published in 1872 is available as a free pdf download and is worth checking out for anyone with an interest in 19th century Freemasonry. There is a statue honoring Pike, located near Judiciary Square in downtown Washington DC.
Apparently, in 1871 Pike sent a letter to European Freemason leader and Italian politician, Giuseppe Mazzini, graphically outlining plans for three world wars, the first two of which would appear to have played out pretty much as he described (see links below), the third world war he described as follows:
The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the agentur of the Illuminati between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Muslim Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion
We shall unleash the Nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil.
Could the section of text I've highlighted be a reference to ISIS and The Wahhabi Extremists?
These links go into a bit more detail:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/kill...-letter-to-giuseppe-mazzini/1156044531161103/
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/lat...ter-Albert-Pike-conspiracy-Islam-ISIS-America (Yes, I know it is the Daily Star! They do however use a good picture of Pike in his '33' Freemasonry regalia)
To be taken with a large pinch of salt, obviously. Nevertheless, this Pike character is certainly interesting!