In the September 9 issue of leading pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Alawsat, opinion page editor Mshari Al-Zaydi reflects on the popularity of September 11 conspiracy theories. He writes:
All these suggestions and scenarios indicate the extent of the control of wishful thinking over us. This is because the common factor among all these ideas is to put the responsibility on the shoulders of a party other than the Arab and Muslim party, i.e. a party that is not us.
… The main purpose of all these contorted ideas is to kill the questions, and to exonerate the cultural self from responsibility. If the ones who carried out these explosions were Serbs, Mossad, Seventh Day Adventists, Colombian gangs, or the CIA, it would be meaningless to question us about extremism, the culture of fanaticism and religious excess, the need to revise the concepts that establish religious violence, and all this continuous headache of questions that keep hammering on the mind of the society.
… the entire issue is reduced to saying that there are conspiracies that no one knows about except those in the know, but we are a perfect nation with a healthy society, culture, and civilization (where are all these now?!). However, we are targeted and warred upon. We are the main preoccupation of the world. The world wants to oppress us, prevent us from rising, and rob our wealth.
… The defeat of 1967 was a foreign conspiracy, so were the 1956 aggression and the 1948 catastrophe. The appointment of Anwar al-Sadat as president of Egypt was a conspiracy. Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait was a conspiracy, and the west deliberately enticed Saddam into it. Osama Bin Laden is a conspiracy. All the religious fanaticism, and the dozens, even hundreds of suicide bombers, who flood our land with blood and torn bodies, are nothing but tools of a conspiracy that is managed from abroad (the nature and type of this abroad vary according to the prevailing circumstances and enemies).
This type of thinking reflects a deep-rooted perplexity, and a continuous fear of facing up to the naked truth.
The title of Al-Zaydi’s essay is “They Feed Our Illusions.”
Todd Leventhal is the Department’s expert on conspiracy theories and misinformation—stories that are untrue, but widely believed. He enjoys reading obituaries, which tell the personal stories of people who have shaped the fabric of American life.
Todd became interested in international affairs after a four-month trip to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in 1972. He worked for Voice of America for seven years and bikes to work year-round.
Comments (2)
jason brown
Location: Aotearoa
12 September 2009 at 15:36 EDT
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Reflections on 911, huh?
Not sure many people are in a reflective mood when it comes to 911, and the many, many unanswered questions events of that day raise.
However I look forward to reading further on what must be a world first, a government openly promoting debate and allowing feedback, like this.
John
Location: Australia
21 September 2009 at 02:19 EDT
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If 9/11 was an inside job (i.e. directed by the CIA), then why not claim that the planes were full of Iraqis, Iranians and Afghanis (where much of the strife is occuring)? Most of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and there haven’t exactly been any direct claims to attack Saudi Arabia.
If the world was a conspiracy theory, it would be too easy to work out.
Hypothetically, even if we were to suppose that 9/11 was an ‘inside job’ (like the JFK conspiracy), there are many people dying on a daily basis in other parts of the world as well. Thus, 9/11 is part of a process where inoccent people are dying, not the only one.