Conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of Arab politics, according to a 1994 paper in the journal Political Psychology.[1] Prof. Matthew Gray writes they "are a common and popular phenomenon" that are important to understanding the political landscape of the Arab world.[2] Variants include conspiracies involving Western colonialism, Islamic anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, superpowers, oil, and the war on terror,[3][4][5][6] which is often referred to in Arab media as a "War against Islam".[2][4][5] Roger Cohen theorizes that the popularity of conspiracy theories in the Arab world is "the ultimate refuge of the powerless".[7] The prevalence of conspiracy theories reflects effective top-down dissemination of disinformation by state actors, rather than a unique susceptibility of Arab culture to conspiracy, as some have claimed.[8] State hostility and weak protections for journalists present major obstacles to challenging conspiracy theories, as journalists struggle to gather information and put their lives at risk by contradicting their governments.[9] The spread of antisemitic and anti-Zionist conspiracism in the Arab world and the Middle East has seen an extraordinary proliferation since the beginning of the Internet Era.[4]
Gray points out that actual conspiracies such as the 1956 plot to seize control of the Suez Canal encourage speculation and creation of imagined conspiracies.[10] After the 1967 Six-Day War which resulted in a decisive Arab defeat, conspiracy theories started to gain traction in the Arab world. The war was perceived as a conspiracy by Israel and the United States—or its opposite: a Soviet plot to bring Egypt into the Soviet sphere of influence.[11] Thomas Friedman notes the numerous conspiracy theories concerning the Lebanese civil war, attributing the source of the conflict to "Israelis, the Syrians, the Americans, the Soviets, or Henry Kissinger" in an attempt to destabilize the Lebanese government.[12]
^Zonis, Marvin; Joseph, Craig M. (September 1994). "Conspiracy Thinking in the Middle East". Political Psychology. 15 (3). International Society of Political Psychology: 443–459. doi:10.2307/3791566. JSTOR 3791566. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
^ abMatthew Gray (2010). Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World. Routledge. ISBN 978-0415575188.
^Spoerl, Joseph S. (January 2020). "Parallels between Nazi and Islamist Anti-Semitism". Jewish Political Studies Review. 31 (1/2). Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs: 210–244. ISSN 0792-335X. JSTOR 26870795. Archived from the original on 9 June 2020. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
^ abcDe Poli, Barbara (2018). "Anti-Jewish and Anti-Zionist Conspiracism in the Arab World: Historical and Political Roots". In Asprem, Egil; Dyrendal, Asbjørn; Robertson, David G. (eds.). Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Vol. 17. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 321–342. doi:10.1163/9789004382022_016. ISBN 978-90-04-38150-6. ISSN 1874-6691. S2CID 158462967.
^ abBerridge, Willow J. (2018). "Islamism and the Instrumentalisation of Conspiracism". In Asprem, Egil; Dyrendal, Asbjørn; Robertson, David G. (eds.). Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion. Brill Handbooks on Contemporary Religion. Vol. 17. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 303–320. doi:10.1163/9789004382022_015. ISBN 978-90-04-38150-6. ISSN 1874-6691. S2CID 201582498.
^Jikeli, Günther (2015). "Anti-Semitism within the Extreme Right and Islamists' Circles". In Fireberg, Haim; Glöckner, Olaf (eds.). Being Jewish in 21st-Century Germany. Europäisch-jüdische Studien – Beiträge. Vol. 16. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 188–207. doi:10.1515/9783110350159-013. ISBN 9783110350159. JSTOR j.ctvbj7jwc.15. S2CID 183381200.
^Roger Cohen (Dec 21, 2010). "The Captive Arab Mind". The New York Times.
^Lahoud, Nelly (2023-10-02). "The (In)effectiveness of Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World". Democracy and Security. 19 (4): 425–445. doi:10.1080/17419166.2023.2265115. ISSN 1741-9166. S2CID 263749902.
^"Freedom of the Press: in the Middle East, widely curtailed and often violated". United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR). May 3, 2012. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
^(Gray 2010, p. 59)
^(Gray 2010, p. 60)
^Thomas L. Friedman (1998). From Beirut to Jerusalem. p. 36.
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