Conspiracies Abound In the Middle East Press

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Controversies in the Middle East are surrounded by conspiracy theories that proliferate in the region’s press. Recent conspiracies have involved the identity of the person behind the cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, the genocide in Darfur, and the true perpetrators of terrorist attacks worldwide.

The latest Middle East conspiracy was hatched September 12, following Pope Benedict XVI’s contentious speech in Germany on Islam. Influential Middle East press and broadcast outlets and prominent figures claimed that America, Jews, Zionists, and/or Israel were really behind his comments.

The Iranian judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, said in a meeting with judiciary officials September 18 that the Zionists — backed by America and Europe, “which consider themselves Christians” — were behind the pope’s statements, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The Iranian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami reported on September 17 that the pope’s remarks against Islam could have been “a dictate that the Zionists and the Americans have written [for him] and have submitted to him.”

The Kayhan daily, which is closely allied with the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported on September 17, “There are many signs that show that Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks regarding the great prophet of Islam are a link in a connected chain of a Zionist-American project.”

Ayatollah Khamenei was quoted by the Mehr News Agency as saying the pope’s remarks were part of an American-Israeli conspiracy to create a conflict between religions.

He added that America is trying to sow discord between Muslims and Christians, tarnish the image of Muslim minorities in the West, and suppress Islamic countries under the pretext of their alleged support for terrorism.

In a September 17 Tehran Times op-ed titled “The Pope’s New Crusade,”Hassan Hanizadeh wrote: “Following the suspicious 9/11 attacks, the West is increasing the psychological and propagandistic pressure on Muslims to prepare the ground for the expulsion of Muslims from the U.S. and European countries.

“The Pope’s rude remarks are actually code words for the start of a new crusade. … Another aim of such propaganda is to facilitate the implementation of the new Middle East plan so that the Zionist regime can become the Hong Kong of the Middle East and fill Islamic countries’ markets with Israeli goods.”

High-ranking Saudi officials fear that the pope’s remarks might represent the beginning of a new papal role in directing efforts against Islam, the Arab reformist Web site Elaph, which is bankrolled by Saudi money, reported September 15.

The article said the pope is a believer in white supremacy and Christianity as the only civilized religion, and it also suggested that his statements could be an attempt to forge closer ties with Israel.

A renowned Islamic scholar, Mufti Abul Irfan Mohammad Naimul Haleem, issued a statement on September 16 that was reprinted in the Indian newspaper the Hindu.

In it, the mufti said Western countries had “hatched conspiracies and launched a disinformation campaign against Islam and Muslims to divert the world’s attention from the expansionist designs of some of them against certain sovereign Muslim countries.”

The pope’s remarks, he added, were “part of meticulously planned propaganda against Islam and the Prophet Mohammad to create hate and mistrust against Muslims.”

The Turkish press reacted to Benedict’s remarks with attacks on Jews and Christians; one influential writer called them “blood sucking vampires.”

A columnist for the secular, centrist daily Aksam, Hüsnü Mahalli, wrote on September 19: “Contrary to some people’s interpretations, the pope has spoken knowingly, consciously, and deliberately, having calculated all the consequences. … On his first visit to his homeland Germany [as pope], ‘his majesty’ visited a Jewish synagogue, and there, in a secret meeting with 60 rabbis, discussed how they should act together against Islam.”

When the next major event occurs in the Muslim world — whether it is manmade, natural disaster, or something else — the Jews, Zionists, and America can expect to be made the scapegoat for it.

Mr. Stalinsky is the executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute.


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