Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World: Sources and Politics

218 Pages·2010·1.64 MB·English

by  Matthew Gray

Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World
Sources and politics
Conspiracy theories, while not unique to the Middle East, are a salient
feature of the political discourses of the region. Strongly reflecting and
impacting on state–society relations and indigenous impressions of the world
beyond the region, they affect how political behaviour within and among the
states of the region is situated, structured, and controlled.
Discounting the common pathological explanation for conspiracism, the
author argues that a complex mix of political factors account for most con-
spiracy theories in the contemporary Arab world. He demonstrates how the
region’s modern history, genuine conspiracies, the complex and oftentimes
strained relationship between state and society, the role of the state and the
mass media as conspiracy theorists, and the impacts of new technologies
have all helped to develop and sustain conspiracist narratives. Drawing on a
range of examples and cases, including the impacts of globalization, economic
reform, weak state legitimacy, the war in Iraq, the Arab-Israeli issue, the rise
of political Islamism, and Internet and satellite television, the book illumi-
nates the complex sources of conspiracy theories.
Providing a comprehensive overview of this controversial topic, this book
will appeal not only to students and scholars interested in Middle East
studies, political science, globalization and conspiracy theories, but to anyone
seeking an understanding of the region’s complex economic, social, and
cultural dynamics.
Matthew Gray is Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies
attheAustralianNationalUniversity,Canberra,Australia.Hisresearchfocus
is the politics and political economyof the contemporary Arabworld, and he
has publishedwidely on these in academic journals and edited books.

Conspiracy Theories in the
Arab World
Sources and politics
Matthew Gray
Firstpublished2010
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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©2010MatthewGray
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
fromthepublishers.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Gray,Matthew,1970-
ConspiracytheoriesintheArabworld:sourcesandpolitics/MatthewGray.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. Conspiracytheories–Arabcountries. I. Title.
HV6254.G732010
001.9–dc22
2009048091
ISBN 0-203-85116-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13: 978-0-415-57518-8 (hbk)
ISBN13:978-0-415-57519-5(pbk)
ISBN13:978-0-203-85116-6(ebk)
For my son, Henry, and in memory of
Henry Svoboda (1928–2005) and Allen Svoboda (1941–2000)

Contents
A note on transliteration ix
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
The significance of conspiracism in the Arab world 2
Conspiracy theory, conspiracism, paranoia: terminologies
and definitions 4
Conspiracism and Arab politics 8
About this book 11
2 Conspiracism and conspiracy theories 20
The weaknesses of pathological and structural
explanations for conspiracism 21
The limited utility of structural explanations 24
Conspiracism as entertainment 27
Conspiracism as a sign of marginalization and as popular
deconstructivism 29
Political-sociological explanations for conspiracism 32
The state–society dimension 38
The question of applicability 43
3 Actual conspiracies, perceived conspiracies and historical wrongs 49
Early history and the impact of colonialism 50
Zionism and the creation of Israel 53
The Arab-Israeli conflict, superpower interventionism, the growth of
Israeli power and conspiracy theories 58
Oil and politics and conspiracies 67
The US and Iraq, the war on terrorism and beyond 74
Conspiracism and history 78
viii Contents
4 State, society, ideological vacuums and conspiracism 88
Relative decline and the failure of old ideologies 89
The weakness and threat of new ideologies 96
The distance between states and societies 102
state–society relations, ideological inchoateness
and conspiracism 105
5 The state as conspiracist 118
What the state says and means 119
Real conspiracies? The state, international politics
and conspiracism 126
The common pattern? State conspiracism as diversion 130
State conspiracism as symbolism and state-building 133
State conspiracism as counter-relevance and counter-factual
language 135
The importance of the state as conspiracist 136
6 Beyond state and society: globalization and transnational
conspiracism 141
Globalization and the conspiracism context 142
Transnational media and conspiracism 144
The role of the internet in conspiracism 151
Globalization, al-Qa‘ida and transnational extremism,
and conspiracism 154
Beyond the globalized Internet: transnational actors
and conspiracism 156
The new modalities of conspiracism 160
7 Conclusion 165
Why conspiracy theories and conspiracists matter 165
Responding to conspiracism and conspiracists 169
Looking ahead 171
Bibliography 173
Index 195
A note on transliteration
Ihavetriedtokeepthetransliterationofforeignwordsassimpleandyetclear
as possible in the book.
InthecaseofArabicterms,IhavefollowedthepracticeoftheInternational
Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) fairly closely. Words and names
common in English have been given in their common style (e.g. ‘Gamal
Abdel Nasser’ not Jama-l ‘abd al-Na-s.ir) or as preferred by the person him-/
herself. For more specific terms, however, I have applied the IJMES style of
marking long vowels and emphatic consonants, and using ‘for the Arabic
letter ‘ayn and’ for the hamza, but with the hamza usually not given on
the definite article or at the start of aword (e.g. al-infita-h. al-iqtisa-d-ı, naz.ariyya
al-mu‘a-mara,etc.). Ihavenot put an ‘h’nor a ‘t’ at the end of wordsthat end
- -
with a ta marbut.a.
PersianandHebrewwordsandtermsaregiveninthestylemostcommonly
seen in academic and popular books and articles that refer to them. I have
italicized particular terms but not common names of people or places: thus
Aliyah, mostazefin, etc. but ‘Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’ and ‘Tehran’. In
the case of Persian, I have not used diacritical marks or any marking for
emphatic consonants.Frenchwords arerenderedexactlyasin theFrenchand
italicized except where they are common in English (e.g. coup d’état for the
full term but ‘coup’ for short).