Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World: Sources and Politics PDF
Preview Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World: Sources and Politics
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 270MadisonAve,NewYork,NY10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. ©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).
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