Section 1. Part 1 (Conspiracy Theories and their Rebuttals)

By Anas Abbas

Conspiracy theories have been quite rampant in the Muslim society throughout the past few decades. These theories form the basis of a Utopian world where the Muslims are surrounded by the nefarious activities and insidious plots of the so called anti Islamic forces such as:

• Masonic (Freemasons)
• Zionists (mainly after the fallout of Israeli Occupation of Palestine),
• The “cruel and tyrannical” (As Pakistani class 6 Social Studies school textbook describes them) The Hindus
• The mysterious “Hindu Zionists”
• Last but not the least Uncle Sam (USA).

These theories portray Muslims as protagonists who are given a special prerogative to enforce their rule across the whole planet. Religion has been an important element of these theories and it has been widely exploited by politicians, army officers, religious scholars, media representatives and “Security Analysts” to justify their opinions. Most of these theories, especially those related to Jews, have been heavily plagiarised from the works of Christians, Russians and other European countries during their persecution of Jews in the early 20^th century.

Theory 1.

One such theory is quite popular in Pakistan (an Islamic Country). Apart from the Israeli Palestinian conflict this theory, among others, is used to promote a negative image of Israel among the Pakistani people and justifies Israel’s complicity in destabilizing their country.

The gist of this theory is that during Israel’s independence in 1948, its first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion expressed severe reservations against the newly formed land of pure known as Pakistan. In its independence speech Mr. Ben Gurion then urged the people of Israel to form an alliance with the Hindus in India in order to covertly destabilize Pakistan through propaganda campaigns, secret conspiracy plots and militant proxies. In its 62 years of turbulent history, Pakistani rulers have used such theories to blame and to justify the complicity of “foreign elements” in every crisis the country has faced. This goes on from food, water and electricity shortages to economic/political instability, terrorism and sectarian violence.

The text of this theory as claimed by elements in Pakistan (such as Zaid hamid & Dr Shireen Mazari) goes like this:

In 1948 during Israel’s independence speech – David Ben Gurion said:

“The world Zionist movement should not be neglectful of the dangers of Pakistan to it. And Pakistan now should be its first target, for this ideological State is a threat to our existence. And Pakistan, the whole of it, hates the Jews and loves the Arabs. “This lover of the Arabs is more dangerous to us than the Arabs themselves. For that matter, it is most essential for the world Zionism that it should now take immediate steps against Pakistan. “Whereas the inhabitants of the Indian peninsula are Hindus whose hearts have been full of hatred towards Muslims, therefore, India is the most important base for us to work there from against Pakistan. “It is essential that we exploit this base and strike and crush Pakistanis, enemies of Jews and Zionism, by all disguised and secret plans.”

David Ben Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, as printed in the Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967 edition.

This is not simply a diplomatic statement; it is a pure declaration of war especially when he says “To form bases in India to crush Pakistan”. Also the timing of this is quite significant which is during Israel’s independence. Remember that an independence speech is quite influential towards forming the ideology and constitution of any particular country. (Unlike Pakistan where there is no agreement among its people on what its founder Jinnah actually said during 1947’s Independence speech)

If this a clear ‘Zionist’ Declaration of War and an ideological propaganda (as claimed by Pakistan) then why did Pakistan never take any actions on the following lines during its 62 years history:

• Pakistan’s Foreign Office has never diplomatically responded against this highly offensive statement of David Ben Gurion?
• It never raised this issue in UN Security Council meetings or during the Organizational of Islamic conference (Aka OHHH I SEE) meetings.
• It never shared this critical security threat with its “Sleeping Partner” known as the “PRC” China.
• It didn’t raise this issue with its major “Cold War” exploiter once known as the Mujahedeen backer (USA).
• It never shared this ‘common security threat’ with its restive Zionist Phobic neighbor called “Khomeini’s Iran”
• Pakistan’s military dictators quietly accepted Israeli weapons during “1980s Afghan Jihad” and Israeli humanitarian aid (through third parties of course) during the 2005 disastrous earthquake despite the above quoted declaration of war by ‘Zionists’.

The questions above are quite easy to answer but before pondering over on this, let’s investigate on the authenticity of Mr. Ben Gurion’s statement? Let’s find out whether this offensive quote above really belongs to David Ben Gurion or if this is a skilful propaganda campaign of Pakistan army and religious scholars through their media representatives such as “Defense Analyst” Zaid Hamid or cantankerous “Dr” Shireen Mazari. Even before investigating this, I would like to share a very interesting directive that is given to the Muslims in their most sacred book Quran. In chapter 17 verse 36 of this book, they are clearly commanded by their God to verify every piece of information before accepting. Below is a comprehensive description of this verse by Ghulam Ahmed Pervez (Once an employee of central Government and counselor of Pakistan’s founder Jinnah).

“You should not take a stand (regarding anything) where you have no personal knowledge (Use all means of inquiry and then come to a conclusion – Allah has given you all the faculties for this purpose.) Mind it, the ear and the eye and the heart – all of them shall have to answer in regard to the question whether personal inquiry was made about the concerned matter” Quran Chapter 17, verse 36.

Sadly the gullible believers of conspiracy theories have failed miserably to apply these important messages of Quran and instead wasted their time on issues like “Four Marriages”, “Jihad” and segregation of women through “Shuttle cock” Burqa.

Rebuttal:

The independence speech of Israel’s first prime minster can be found on http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace%20Process/Guide%20to%20the%20Peace%20Process/Declaration%20of%20Establishment%20of%20State%20of%20Israel : Israeli Foreign Ministry.

The Original Recording: http://www.knesset.gov.il/docs/eng/megilat_eng.htm :

Israel’s Legislative Body

http://info.jpost.com/1998/Supplements/Jubilee/2.html : The Jerusalem Post (Leading Israeli Newspaper)

After reading the text of all these speeches and after carrying out a comprehensive research on all other speeches by all successive Israeli leaders since its illegal Palestinian occupation, it is hard to believe that David Ben Gurion or any other Israeli leader has ever made any such statement against Pakistan. There is no evidence of such statement even by any influential Israeli Analyst or think tank such as International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism.

The quote above or any such statement even remotely related to Pakistan cannot be verified by any Israeli supported (newspaper archives, editorials or articles) or by any Israeli military, government and civil society websites. It is not even mentioned or ever used against Israel even by the media networks of Arabs and the Palestinians such as Al Manar TV and Al Aqsa TV.

From my own independent research, I found out that Jacob Wallace, an expert on Israeli affairs and senior fellow at the Council on foreign Relations (A well known American think-tank), has never heard any such statement. Moreover, Pakistani analyst on Terrorism, Imtiaz Gul also doubts the validity of this statement. Some scholars I spoke with at the Quaid e Azam University Islamabad found it unusual why no one has ever heard of this highly offensive, public address.

If I closely examine the above quote then I notice a mysterious reference at the end that goes like this “Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 1967”

Now Jewish Chronicle is a London based newspaper that was founded in 1841 and is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world.

Here is the website: http://www.thejc.com/

Now lets verify the above quote from its 167 years archives: http://archive.thejc.com/search/frame.jsp?UseridStr=48,101,229,24,61,121,19,168&ExpireStr=242,148,54,108,242,126,209,230,2,74,226,31,162,93,218,171,112,15,173,18,61,37,167,161&Arch=&SubsNo=48,101,229,24,61,121,19,168

The above quote does not exist in the archives, which shows that it is a propaganda tactic of Pakistani establishment, Some Army elements, Nationalists, Religious scholars, Politicians etc.

The most unusual thing here is the published date of the newspaper: “9 August 1967”. Whoever invented this quote had miserably failed to realize that this Jewish chronicle magazine was not even published on this date. In fact, this magazine has always been published on Fridays throughout its history and according to the Gregorian calendar, “9 August 1967” happens to be on Wednesday.

I contacted the Jewish Chronicle in London, UK and according to them there is no record of the Jewish Chronicle publishing any such speech by David Ben Gurion. The person I spoke with in their marketing department even told me that although the London based version is the most widely circulated and there are some regional version with very limited circulation that are published in some US states,

All of them have always been published on Fridays and none could have published a story so big without them finding out.

(Please refer to these links for dates confirmation http://www.thejc.com/about and http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1967&country=1)

This shows how much false propaganda against certain nations exists in Pakistan. But Pakistan is not the only country where the ruling establishment depends on conspiracy theories to serve their interests. Similar examples can be found in:

• India (Propaganda predominantly against Muslims and Pakistan). Such as from extreme right wing Hindu nationalists such as Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and RSS.) http://www.education.nic.in/cabe/textbooks.pdf
• Israel (false theories related to the Settlements and conflicts issues where Israel has violated Geneva Convention by shifting its population to occupied areas). Also Israeli Textbooks justify every Israeli war and holds Arabs responsible. In some state school textbooks, derogatory adjectives are used to disrespect Arabs. http://www.ecomtrade.co.il/eMall/shops/1559/imgbank/Israeli%20Report%20-%20September%202000.pdf
• America (mainly during Cold War to demonize Communism and Saddam’s Al-Qaida nexus or Iraq Nuclear fallacy)
• China (mainly to demonize democratic & Pro Human Rights institutions). Any organization that criticizes any element of the ruling communist party becomes a victim of communist propagandists.

However Pakistan is one of those few countries where conspiracy theories play a pivotal role in every institution and they target three countries, India, Israel & the US. These theories are widespread in Pakistan where the militant sympathizers, Anti Westerners and Anti Non Muslims use them to create fear and to legitimize the establishment of a theocratic Islamic caliphate and/or military oligarchy. The corrupt politicians also rely on these theories in order to avoid any corruption charges and concerns on their accountability.

Take the Indus water treaty between India and Pakistan. This was signed between the two nations in 1960 and according to this the country that first completes its project on a river will get the complete rights of that river. According to a research by CRSS Islamabad, Indians due to their better planning and effective water management policies have developed link canals, Dams and hydroelectric projects on the rivers allocated to them through this treaty such as Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Today due to better water storage facilities, India’s storage to water flow ratio is 52% as compared to Pakistan’s 11%. This means that Pakistan allows most of the water to escape into the sea every year which results in impacting its dam’s storage capacity. This is mainly because Pakistani Politicians, Military dictators, Water Planning commissions and implementing bodies have never spent their time to seriously plan and to sort out these grave issues for the poor public and Instead they were either busy filling their bank accounts abroad (mainly in UK and Switzerland) or buying expensive weapons & arming proxy militias to attack neighbouring countries such as arming Afghan Warlords & Taliban to attack Afghanistan and Jash ie Mohammad, Lashkar e Taiba , Harkutul Ansar and Hizbul Mujahedeen for India.

Throughout history, whenever these dictators, politicians and scholars have faced public and media criticism regarding their accountabilities, most of them had ready-made conspiracy theories that extricated them from the outcry of the public and instead shifted the blame directly on “Foreign Elements”. The cherry on the cake is that the public also listens to conspiracy theories of these politicians because they contain religious elements and it is considered taboo and blasphemous to speak against religion or religious leaders, mostly punishable by death. Many also even include their local political or religious rivals as antagonists in their theories such as in the case of Political parties.

Recent examples of Pakistani political parties labelling their opponents either Zionists, Indians, Jewish Lobbyists or Americans are:

• PPP Minister Baber Awan recently utilized the strategy of “Qadiani lobby” conspiracy to evade against the corruption charges. Baber knew that by naming Qadianis, he would get some support as Qadianis are popularly assumed to be an anti Muslim force working to malign the Muslim leaders on behalf on none other than Jews

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=26149

• PPP MNA recently called some journalists as Israeli agents because they were sensationalizing the corruption issues of their leader Asif Ali Zardari.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=26259

• Maulana Fazlur rehman’s JUI party calls a pro Taliban Journalist Ansar Abbasi a Jewish agent just because he exposed their support of President Musharraf and illegal land allotment.

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=18354

• Musharraf and his dictatorship supporters termed the lawyers movement as a foreign sponsored Zionist force to destabilize Pakistan.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX036XcJNYw
• Pakistan’s Tehreek e Insaaf Party Leader Imran Khan recently called prominent scientist Pervez Hoodboy as an American Agent (Security Advisor).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uBLGK23yGI&feature=PlayList&p=D5F3FB65A93D25AF&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=29

http://iaoj.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/pervez-hoodhbhoy-attacked-by-taliban-khan-imran-khan/ (Hoodboy Answer to Imran)

There are many examples of this conspiracy theory culture in Pakistan and most players effectively play the Jewish card pretty well.

References:

Pakistan Water Crisis Report (http://www.crss.pk/wpager09.php) Please find under June 2009.

http://www.crss.pk/Res-Reports/Story%20of%20Jihadi%20Curriculum%20in%20Pakistan.pdf (Pakistani Textbook Anti Hindu)

http://www.thenews.com.pk/editorial_detail.asp?id=178540 (Shireen Mazari article in The News English using David Ben Gurion’s false quote)

Zaid Hamid’s False Claim on David Ben Gurion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xPPwnMTGkE

Israel’s aid during 2005 earthquake: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1129113922099&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Theory 2

Secret Map by US military official Lt. Col Ralph Peters in 2006 to safeguard Israeli security interest and to balkanize Pakistan.

This map is quite frequently used by Zaid Hamid, pseudo journalist Ahmed Qureshi, “DR” Shireen Mazari (Recently sacked by Jung group newspaper for spreading zaid hamidi theories http://thenews.jang.com.pk/print3.asp?id=24368 ) and many other journalists to highlight the American, Indian and Israeli conspiracy in balkanizing Pakistan.

The map is below:

http://www.sott.net/image/image/s1/28617/full/The_20Project_20for_20the_20New.jpg

According to these conspiracy theorists, the above map is a part of a secret plan devised to achieve Israeli security, American energy interests in Baluchistan and Indian long time desire for the disintegration of Pakistan.

Here is the link of a so called security report from Zaid Hamids website that is using this map as the best source of evidence against the so called enemies of Islam.

http://brasstacks.pk/pdfs/policypapers/PNACPolicyPaper.pdf

This second link is to a video where he  analyzes the map and highlights the Israeli security interest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBPKBgRSH34

Also refer to this “DR”Shireen Mazari article where this map was again used as an evidence for Pakistan’s balkanization.

http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Opinions/Columns/21-Oct-2009/Pakistan-trapped-in-the-US-game-plan

Rebuttal:

Ralph Peters is a retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, novelist and respected expert on military and intelligence issues just like experts in Pakistan such as General Hamid Gul,  Mirza Aslem Baig or Talat Masood.

http://www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org/events/2005/09-21-ralph-peters.jsp (About Ralph Peters)

Let us see how this map is in favour of Israeli security interest.

Before this, let me ask Zaid Hamid, his followers, and other conspiracy theorists the following questions:

•     Mr Zaid Hamid, et al, has anyone of you ever attended a math class in school?

•     What grades did you obtain in your technical subjects at University?

•     Do all of you have fake degrees just like the former minister for religious affairs in Pakistan (Amir Liaquat Husain)

Are all of you so blind in your misperceived patriotism and false pride that you have conveniently ignored a major section of this map by Ralph Peters?

Well my readers must be wondering why I am asking these questions

Hang on.

Can anyone tell me what a “map key” is?

I can find the best definition of map key here:

“A map key is a list of words or phrases or colors — usually within a box in the corner of the map — that usually explains the symbols that that are found on the map itself. Also referred to as a “legend.” (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_map_key)

This is the accepted definition of a map key. I doubt that the conspiracy theorists interpret the map of Ralph Peters through the key provided.

Below is the key extract from the above map.

Now what is this key telling us?

It’s indicating that in this map, those countries that are named in black are gaining territory and those in red are losing territory. There are also those countries shown in the map in grey that neither lose nor gain territory.

Now the most blatant error that Zaid Hamid and Co. are making here is to miss out a fundamental point about Israel’s name in Ralph Peters’ map (Remember red means losing territory)

Please see below the extract from the map showing Israel’s name in red which means the country is losing territory.

How come this map is in favour of Israel and how is it possible that this is anywhere successful in achieving Israeli security (by Zaid Hamid) when the map itself is showing Israel loosing significant territory to Jordon and Lebanon?

In other words how is Israel achieving its so called goal to balkanize Pakistan by simultaneously balkanizing itself?

This is typical of conspiracy theorists like Zaid Hamid and Shireen Mazari that they distort every piece of information and manipulate it to serve the interest of their paranoia. In this map they are only highlighting the balkanization of Pakistan, conveniently ignoring Israeli territorial loss

Full marks should be given to the gullible followers of the conspiracy theorists who can’t even analyse a simple map key and instead choose to blindly follow their baseless diatribe against this map.

Now let’s look at this article from Ralph Peters which came along with this map in the United States Monthly Military magazine in the year 2006.

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2006/06/1833899/ (Please read it)

In this article titled “How a better Middle East would look” Ralph Peters carried out an experiment by hypothetically changing the borders of certain countries in the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa to address the concerns of the oppressed people in these restive regions. Some of these concerns are:

• Baluchistan in Pakistan: the Baloch people have been deprived of their rights and fair share on local resources by the Pakistani Establishment. (http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=174643). Not to mention the killings of thousands in army operations, extra judicial killings, kidnappings and mass tortures by the security forces which have added to the Balouchi peoples’ misery.
• The Pasthun Durand line, which has divided the Pashtun tribes in two countries (Pakistan and Afghanistan), has been a source of unrest and hostility for decades.
• Gaza, West Bank and Golan Heights: thousands of innocent Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Security Forces through cluster bombs, chemical weapons, aerial bombardment and through brutal oppressive tactics like blocking the supply of electricity and water in the name of security concern by the Israeli forces. Many Israeli citizens have been a victim of suicide bombings and indiscriminate killings.
  
• Similar territorial issue’s in Iraqi region of Kurdistan which fought with Saddam regime on autonomy and has been a victim of a genocide called Al – Anfal campaign where Saddam Hussein’s regime massacred thousands of Kurds.

Ralph Peters map was merely just a recommendation based on his personal opinion rather than a clear directive of US Foreign Policy by Department of Defence or CENTCOM.

In fact the journal his article was published in has clearly stated its guidelines here:

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/custserv/guidelines/ (Please read the “who we are” section)

According to their website “Armed Forces journal” is a military magazine where retired or current US military officers share their opinions, analysis and reviews on military policy, defence issues, technology, logistics and tactics. It is senseless to think that this journal dictates US foreign policy.

If it is assumed that Armed Forces Journal dictates American foreign policy then why the same journal has an article extremely critical of (War on Terror) Iraq war and the Blackwater security company (Now known as XE).

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/10/2865287/ (Iraq War)

http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2009/01/3889281/ (Trail for Blackwater agents)

Also if conspiracy theorists label Ralph Peter’s map as a doctrine of US foreign policy then they contradict their most cherished claim that Israel and Jews rule America. This is because according to Peters’ map Israel is ceding its territories by withdrawing to pre 1967 borders

Interestingly, HAMAS, a political organization classified as “terrorists” by the US, demands the same territorial retreat from Israel as shown in the above hypothetical map. This demand is also accepted by Palestinian Liberation Organization’s chief Mahmoud Abbas and was also the recommendation of the UN Security Council resolution 242.

Please refer to these references for HAMAS’s stance and UN Resolution:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/04/2008615098393788.html

http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/240/94/IMG/NR024094.pdf?OpenElement

A similar article was recently released by a prominent Chinese based think-tank called China International Institute for Strategic Studies that caused massive uproar in the Indian media as the article advocated the balkanization of their country into different states based on several ethnicities.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Break-India-says-China-think-tank/articleshow/4883573.cms

However after mass hysteria in the media, the spokesperson of the Indian ministry of external affairs clarified to them that the article was representing only the personal opinion of an analyst rather than anything to do with the official Indo –Chinese bilateral relations.

Hence after carefully interpreting the Ralph peter’s map, we can safely reach the conclusion that the map was based on a hypothetical analysis, merely recommending that Pakistan, Israel and some other states give up territories in order to accommodate the demands of the oppressed people and to somehow bring peace in these restive regions.

If an opinion from an individual analyst, journalist or think tank is taken to represent the official policy of a country then how should one interpret former ISI’s chief General Hamid Gul statements in favour of balkanaizing India? Should this also be considered an official declaration by the Chief of Army Staff or the President of Pakistan?

Please refer to this many video of Hamid Gul legitimizing Indian balkanization

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N-uoukDCD0&feature=related

Also refer to this Hamid Gul’s article:

http://generalhamidgul.com/pakarticles/18-pakistan/237-mein-bharat-kay-tukray-tukray-hota-dekhna-chahta-hoon