9/11 CultWatch

Different Cultures, Different Conspiracy Theories?

Whilst research into what is dubbed 'conspiracy theory' is now developing, I am not aware of any comparative studies comparing, for example, conspiracy theorists in the West and those in Muslim majority countries, or those in say Russia and the United States. 

From my own reading Western conspiracy theories appear far more eclectic. In the US or UK you can wade through everything from shape shifting aliens to men in black. In the Muslim world, and amongst elements in Muslim communities in the West, conspiracy theories (for want of a better term) appear to centre on Israel, the Jews, the USA and bizarrely, freemasonry. 

The December 2013 Fortean Times (the somewhat disappointing fourtieth anniversary issue) has two whole pages on one manifestation of this - the series of 'arrests' of birds in Egypt, Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon on suspicion of spying for Israel. In each instance the birds appear to have been fitted with some form of tag or monitoring equipment as part of scientific surveys. These tags usually contain the details of the Israeli universities involved in these projects. 

The widespread nature of these concerns - Fortean Times lists incidents in five different countries since 2010, is surely indicative. If such panics have occurred elsewhere, 9/11 Cultwatch is unaware of them. Or did the USA regularly arrest migrating geese in the Cold War, for fear they had been holidaying in the Soviet Union?

As ever, 9/11 Cultwatch is happy to be corrected by its readers.............

On Religion..........

Hello to Richard Bartholomew, who runs the always interesting blog Bartholomew's Notes on Religion.  

His writing provides a fascinating insight  a weird and not so wonderful world, with full marks due for some of his digging into one of the UK's 'experts' on jihadism, Glen Jenvey, who appears to be experiencing a potential fall from grace......

A Right Cult?

Reading Robert Schroeder's book on Cults, it is hard to digest this quote without seeing the 9/11 truth movement flash before your eyes:

"They are the sane ones; the rest of us are the lunatics bound for annihilation. It is in this belief, this sense of moral and spiritual superiority, that much of their strength lies. Yet it is also the source of their weakness and, if history is any judge, of their ultimate demise."