Best columns: Conspiracy theories are used to keep us down

Sabah Al Kheshni
Alsahwa

It’s time for us Muslims to stop blaming all our problems on conspiracies, said Sabah Al Kheshni in Sanaa’s Alsahwa. Whether the issue is the war in Iraq or the lines that were drawn by the former colonial powers when they carved up the Middle East, we always look for “a conspiracy.” And we usually find one—often involving the notion that “Jews are planning to exercise control over us.” This is not only silly, it’s self-defeating. In truth, most of our political and economic problems are homegrown. Our governments cannot admit that, of course, so “the conspiracy theory has become the peg upon which weak societies—most importantly, ours—hang their misfortunes, recessions, domestic illnesses, and other problems.” Indeed, “everything that happens as a result of wrong policies is portrayed as a conspiracy against the regime—even freedom of expression can’t escape the conspiracy label.” But as long as we blame our woes on outsiders—Zionists or imperialists or whomever—we’ll never find the political will and wisdom to put our own house in order.