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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/30241/full/30241/9-11-conspiracy-theories-take-root-in-arab-muslim-world/ <br /><br /> <b>9/11 conspiracy theories take root in Arab/Muslim world</b> <br /> Friday, September 8, 2006 | by <p>abraham h. foxman </p> <br /><br /><p>As the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center is upon us and as the aftermath of Israel’s war against Hezbollah continues to dominate the news, it is timely to note a connecting link between the two events: it was Hezbollah’s television station al-Manar, six days after 9/11, that “reported” that 4,000 Israelis employed at the World Trade Center did not show up for work that day because they were told in advance of the attacks.<br /><br /> This outrageous lie took off like wildfire and became the centerpiece of the conspiracy theory that is accepted by millions of people in the Islamic world, and others around the globe, that it was Israel and the Jews, not al Qaida, that perpetrated the terrorist event of Sept. 11, 2001.<br /><br /> This unhappy and dangerous tale speaks volumes about the unique characteristic of anti-Semitism. While hatred of Jews shares many characteristics with other forms of bigotry, the unique element of anti-Semitism that makes it so lethal, so available in different settings, and so long-lasting is the notion that Jews may seem to be regular folk, but, in fact, they are alien, secretive, poisonous and all-powerful.<br /><br /> It is this notion that pervades the worst forms of hatred of Jews in the 20th century, and is still with us today. It embodies the idea that reality is not what it appears to be on the surface. It enables governments and ideologues of different stripes to blame Jews for all kinds of problems. It is why Jews can be accused of being communists and capitalists and why there can be anti-Semitism without Jews.<br /><br /> This was what the accusation of Jews poisoning wells in the Middle Ages was about — finding an explanation for the plague. This was what the infamous forgery “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” was about — a secret Jewish cabal to take over the world. This was what Goebbels purveyed to the Germans, that Jews, like rats in the sewer system, were poisoning the German body politic from below. And, this is what Islamic extremists today are spreading the world over.<br /><br /> Just like its 20th century totalitarian, anti-Western predecessors, the Nazis and the communists, Islamic extremists not only seek to take over their own societies and threaten the democratic world, but also see a world controlled by an evil Jewish conspiracy.<br /><br /> And there are plenty of people, for a variety of reasons, who are ready to buy into such a theory — some because they don’t like Israel; some because they don’t like America; some because the preaching of radical Islamic mullahs has brought anti-Semitism into the mosque; some because it is easier to blame the Jew than face up to the challenge of terrorist versions of Islam.<br /><br /> The 9/11 conspiracy theory tells a lot about how these things work. It is exactly because the charge is so absurd and shown to be false that it has such appeal. Who could think that Israel would commit such a heinous act against its main ally in the world? The deviousness and cunning that underlies this perspective is what makes it so alluring. The evil that explains it has no bounds. All, it is said, is done to draw the United States into a war against Islam to serve Zionist ends.<br /><br /> It is this willingness to see Jews as such a sinister threat that makes the anti-Semitism of the Islamic extremist world and their fellow travelers so menacing. Yes, others around the world have bought into this conspiracy theory, and we must not ignore the dangers there as well, but it is the mindset that is so receptive in too many Islamic countries that is so dangerous.<br /><br /> Once people see Jews as so powerful and evil, capable of devising plans to take over the world, to concoct the Holocaust and then convince the world of its truth through control of the international media, to conceive and carry out 9/11 and put the blame on Muslims, then anything one does against such evil is acceptable. Today, millions of Muslims are being inculcated with similar ideas.<br /><br /> What to do about this trend? The best solution would be for moderate Muslims to stand up against it. Until then, Israel must be strong and the West needs to recognize that the attack on the Jew is just one part of the attack on all of us and our way of life.<br /><br /> For those of us engaged in fighting anti-Semitism, we must point out the dangers of these ideas in a credible fashion, to rally those who are rational and to expose the irrationality and the scapegoating that threaten us all and that underlie these phenomena.<br /><br /> <br><b><br /><br /> Abraham H. Foxman</b> is national director of the Anti-Defamation League and author of “Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism.”</p> <p> </p>

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