Editing Conspiracy theory (section)

===Arab world===
{{Main|Conspiracy theories in the Arab world}}

Conspiracy theories are a prevalent feature of [[Arab]] culture and politics.<ref name=Gray>{{cite book|title=Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World|author=Matthew Gray|isbn=978-0-415-57518-8|year=2010|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> Variants include conspiracies involving colonialism, [[Zionism]], superpowers, oil, and the [[war on terrorism]], which is often referred to in Arab media as a "[[war against Islam]]".<ref name=Gray/> For example, ''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'', an infamous [[hoax]] document purporting to be a Jewish plan for world domination, is commonly read and promoted in the Muslim world.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/26/world/anti-semitic-elders-of-zion-gets-new-life-on-egypt-tv.html|title=Anti-Semitic 'Elders of Zion' Gets New Life on Egypt TV|last=Wakin|first=Daniel J.|date=26 October 2002|work=The New York Times|access-date=26 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816063157/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/26/world/anti-semitic-elders-of-zion-gets-new-life-on-egypt-tv.html|archive-date=16 August 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/pdfdocs/KSAtextbooks06.pdf|title=2006 Saudi Arabia's Curriculum of Intolerance|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060823125127/http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/pdfdocs/KSAtextbooks06.pdf|archive-date=23 August 2006}} Report by Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House. 2006</ref><ref>[https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB113046423225782130 "The Booksellers of Tehran"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170410052122/https://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB113046423225782130 |date=10 April 2017 }}, ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'', 28 October 2005</ref> [[Roger Cohen]] has suggested that the popularity of conspiracy theories in the Arab world is "the ultimate refuge of the powerless".<ref name=Cohen/> Al-Mumin Said has noted the danger of such theories, for they "keep us not only from the truth but also from confronting our faults and problems".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/stalinsky200405060835.asp|title=A Vast Conspiracy|date=6 May 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004220251/http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/stalinsky200405060835.asp|archive-date=4 October 2013|work=National Review|author=Steven Stalinsky}}</ref> [[Osama bin Laden]] and [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] used conspiracy theories about the United States to gain support for [[al-Qaeda]] in the Arab world, and as rhetoric to distinguish themselves from similar groups, although they may not have believed the conspiratorial claims themselves.<ref name="Gray158-159">{{cite book|author=Matthew Gray|title=Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World: Sources and Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpxdBwAAQBAJ|date=12 July 2010|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-96751-1|pages=158–159}}</ref>