A Bible Study in the book of Revelation

I want to look into the 17th and 18th chapters of the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
First I must say that if you are trying to interpret Scripture from a Greek/gentile point of view, you are going to end up with stuff that doesn't make much sense. There will be a lot of contradictions and a lot of pieces that just don't fit.
I do not claim to have all the answers, but what follows is how I see the events foretold in the book. Actually, I am not even going to get into the events as much as get into the symbols and what they mean.
When you get into Bible symbols, the symbols ALWAYS mean the same thing throughout the whole Bible so you need to start by looking at the whole Bible and not just take Revelation by itself.
Beginning in vs 1... the great harlot= harlot always represents false religion... sitting on many waters= she controls many people-groups or people...
vs 4... the harlot/woman is very wealthy and regal (oil $$?)
vs. 5... couldn't be clearer (even though frequently mis-identified) the name on her forehead is BABYLON. Babylon is the area of Iraq and Iran (not New York City or the USA or the UN or the Catholic Church, etc.)
vs 6 tells us she is drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus. (I don't recall the USA killing followers of Christ, yet... )
The Islamists have been ordered to kill people who will not convert to the religion of Mohammed and this is happening today in various parts of the world. People are being slaughtered in 3rd world countries by Muslims seeking to expand their oil and land and people territories.
vs 8 the beast which the woman rides "was and is not, and yet is." History tells us that the power of Islam was great until beaten down in the Crusades culminating in 1099 with the taking of Jerusalem from the Muslims. Islam was not given much consideration for centuries after that and now: OOPS there it is!
vs 9 has a lot of people thinking this is all about Rome because it speaks of 7 mountains. But mountains are people in the Book. Don't forget the woman is controling the beast and the mountains are it's heads. This does not speak of the physical hills of Rome. It speaks of a group of rulers being controled by a false religious system.
vs 10 says there are 7 kings. 5 have fallen (died), one is, the other has not yet come.
vs 11 gets a little tricky: "the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven..."
These last 2 verses are the biggest clue if you know about the Shia-Islamic Imams. The Shia branch of Islam has been waiting for the Seventh Imam to come back to life (which would then make him the 8th also) since 816 AD (CE to the new-worlders).
To explain IMAMS: These people are the direct descendants of Mohammed--son, grandson, great-grandson, etc. The last one, Imam Reza, died by assassination in 816. His tomb is a Muslim "holy site" to the Shia sect of Islam. The Suni sect was blamed for the killing. Now the Shias are waiting for the Imam to come back. They say he will come forth from a cave, and he will usher in some sort of new world for the Muslims. The president of Iran has said that he will use a nuke to cause the world disaster which is needed to bring the imam back.
The end of the chapter tells us that the 10 horns on the heads turn against the harlot and 'make her desolate.'.
Moving to Chapter 18...
It tells how "all nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her fornication"(islam is speading all over the world by force and bloodshed) and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich through the abundance of her delicacies (vs 3).
She is burned with fire (vs 8) and is destroyed in an hour (vs 17).
Kings (vs 9) and merchants mourn for her (vs 11)
Merchants were made rich by her and kings "lived deliciously with her."
The end of Babylon comes with fire, in one hour, with great violence (vs 21) and shall "be found no more."
So, all taken together,Islam in Iraq and Iran, will be the root of evil problems and God will allow it's destruction... total destruction.
The president of Iran thinks he will usher in the "prophecies" found in the Koran. He actually is going to cause the fulfillment of the real word of God, the Bible.