Conspiracy theories

Mohamed Elmeshad, Al-Masry Al-Youm, Egypt's Israeli conspiracy psyche, 19 Jan 2011

"From orchestrated power outages to remote-controlled killer sharks, Egyptian accusations against Israel range from the plausible to the ludicrous. The frequency and sometimes absurdity of finger pointing in the Israeli direction has left Egyptians vulnerable to ridicule in the foreign media."

Conspiracy theories

Seattle Times, Lie that won't die: Obama is Muslim, 19 Aug 2010: "'The Internet has made it worse,' said Lori Robertson, managing editor of FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan project run under the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. 'Any of these rumors are more rampant, and there's more stuff about them — blogs writing about conspiracy theories. People are exposed to it more.'"

Internet rumours in Iran

Damian Thompson, Telegraph, Internet rumour: Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, 'is dead', 15 Oct 09

"Is Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran dead? This is the story being put out this morning by Realite EU, a news service “supported by individuals concerned with the growing threat of Iran and extremism in Europe and the Middle East”. It is unconfirmed and turns out to be based on questionable sources."

One of these is Antimullah

'Jihadi Cyberbattle' +

There's plenty of interest in jihadica.com (as always), so I can only highlight a couple of things here.

Thomas Hegghammer has picked up on Annual Jihadi Cyberbattle Sees Return of Ikhlas "Like last year, this year’s 9/11 anniversary is the occasion of a major cyberbattle over jihadi forums. At least three of the top jihadi discussion forums - Faloja, Shouraa, Shumukh - have been down for the past couple of days, and I bet my left arm they have been hacked for the occasion. Other big forums such as Ana Muslim and Ansar were reportedly down for a while (though I didn’t see it and they are back up again now). Minor forums such as Tamkin, Madad al-Suyuf and al-Tahaddi seem to have been untouched."

Dr Hegghammer has put the URLs in for these fora (some are non-functional), if you want to follow-up further.

There's also a Jean-Pierre Filiu piece, on Calendars "So we all managed to survive a new celebration of 9/11. But why should Al-Qaida commemorate 9/11 in the first place? I am not referring to the heavy debates that raged among its leadership about the strategic relevance of striking US territory and that Vahid Brown documented in his landmark study Cracks in the foundation. I am talking about the very un-Islamic way Bin Laden’s network focuses on the number 11 and sticks to the Gregorian calendar." Discuss...

Iran 'Internet plot'

Press TV/Tehran Times, Fresh Iran hearing focuses on 'Internet plot', 15 Sep 09 "Tehran's Deputy Prosecutor, Ali-Ahmad Akbari, started reading out a “general indictment”, which centered on the argument that Washington was spreading false information about Iran through the internet.

“Since the beginning, the Islamic Revolution has faced all kinds of media schemes orchestrated by its enemies. Internal and foreign enemies have always tried to create a psychological war against the Islamic Republic by spreading rumors,” said Akbari.

"""During Iran's post-vote developments, internet was used as an effective tool to organize illegal gatherings and to spread false information.""

"“New technologies and ways of communication have impacted human life and today the internet can be used as a new form of threat,” he said.

"“Social networks, such as Facebook, have been able to attract over 200 million users. The U.S. has identified these networks and established a link between them and hostile movements,” he added."

Conspiracy theories: 7/7

Daily Mail,Conspiracy fever: As rumours swell that the government staged 7/7, victims' relatives call for a proper inquiry, 3 Jul 09 "Mr Naseem, a well-educated man, had made 2,000 copies of Ripple Effect for members of his mosque. Research has revealed that even before the contentious video came out, one in four British Muslims thought the Government or the Secret Services were responsible for the 7/7 atrocities. Now the number of doubters is growing."

The video is available on DVD and online (such as here at Google Video)

7/7 conspiracy theories

BBC News, Unmasking the mysterious 7/7 conspiracy theorist, 30 Jun 09 "In the absence of a public inquiry into the 7 July bombings, conspiracy theories have filled the vacuum. One of the more inflammatory involves a man hiding behind an Arabic-sounding pseudonym taken from a sci-fi film starring Sting, says the BBC's Mike Rudin."

Swine Fever discussions on net

al-Bawaba, ”Muslims immuned from swine flu symptoms”…, 29 Apr 09, " ... the news about the symptoms and the infections from the current swine flu virus created a heated debate in the streets, the cafes and internet forums all across the Arab world - will the "scavenger pig" spread also among the Muslims?

"A review of some posts loaded in recent days to the internet exposes some kind of optimism among the Muslims. For instance: "Anonymous Coward" wrote: "Muslims are better immune. Did you ever hear of SARS cases in Muslim countries?" Other posts support this view, claiming Muslims will not be infected as they don't eat the "dirty" pork. This is of course a wrong suggestion as humans do not get swine flu from eating pork."

Also see AKI, Swine flu: Imam claims virus affirms Koran, 29 Apr 09 "The global spread of the deadly swine flu virus affirms Islam's teachings and its holy book, the Koran, according to imam Amadia Rachid based in the Italian city of Salerno. "We believe that what is happening shows the truth of our faith," said Algerian-born Rachid in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI)."

Conspiracy Theory

mina, Australia targeted for 'Forest Fire' jihad?, n.d. "AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.

"US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands".

"The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine.

"The posting — which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer months — says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time".

DS 'Baby Pals' Game Conspiracy Theory

You couldn't make this up: kotaku.com, Well, Of *Course* There Are Secret Islamic Messages Hidden In This DS Game, 28 Jan 09 "Does the Crave DS game "Baby Pals" really say "Islam is the light" when you give your tot a bath? Of course not. That's ridiculous. Doesn't stop WTNH from reporting it, though!"

Here's the original report: WTNH, Video game plays strange message?, 27 Jan 09

Also see

pocketgamer.co.uk, Indiana mother finds Islamic message in DS game Baby Pals, Islamophobia, anyone?, 29 Jan 09 "As far as we know, Crave Entertainment has no ties with radical Islam, but it may be that the developer took part of the game's audio from Fisher Price's Cuddle & Coo doll, which also stands accused of delivering religious propaganda, and indeed was expelled from Ms Jones's home just months before the Baby Pals incident on those grounds."

9/11 - The Third Tower

BBC, "9/11 - The Third Tower "The Conspiracy Files delves into the final mystery of 9/11: the collapse of a third tower at the World Trade Centre, which was never hit by a plane.

"The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 - The Third Tower will be broadcast on Sunday, 6 July, 2008 at 2100 BST on BBC Two." Trailer

Cable Cutting Conspiracy

AFP, Saboteurs may have cut Mideast telecom cables: UN agency, 18 Feb 08 ""Some experts doubt the prevailing view that the cables were cut by accident, especially as the cables lie at great depths under the sea and are not passed over by ships," Murshed said on the sidelines of a conference on cyber-crime held in Gulf state of Qatar."

Downtime Theory (1 of a series...)


CNN, Firm: Ship's anchor cut Mideast Internet cable, 8 Feb 08 ""Fundamentally, if somebody wants to cut a cable, they can do so -- all you need to do is go trawling with an anchor," said Stephan Beckert an analyst with TeleGeography, a research company that consults on global Internet issues. He scoffed at conspiracy theories posted online by what he calls "the tin-foil hat crowd.""

Downtime Conspiracy Theories

Somewhat inevitably, there are numerous theories around the cable cuts (although some people may not be able to effectively post their theories at present):

wsj.com, Conspiracy Theories Behind Those Cut Undersea Cables, 6 Feb 08 "Reports that a fifth undersea communications cable in the Middle East has been damaged in less than a week — further compromising Internet access in countries there, and knocking Iran off the grid entirely – are triggering wild conspiracy theories about who’s at fault, from Islamic extremists to the CIA. But BizTech readers can proceed with global business as planned: the reports aren’t true."

And of course, people have got withdrawal symptoms (and are now wondering what to do with all this free time):

Shamael Al-Sharikh, Kuwait Times, I gots the internet blues, 7 Feb 08 "Now, it has become hard to check some news sites, read email letters from readers, download large attachments, etc. It has also become quite obvious how addicted we are to the internet. It is the major means of communication now, equal to phone lines. I would not be surprised if some sicko in the future figures out a way to permanently destroy internet access as part of a terrorist attack, God forbid."