Does Government Policy on Terrorism Fuel Mistrust?
The BBC is reporting this morning that DEMOS, a respected and influencial think-tank has said that goverment policy on terrorism is actually fuelling mistrust of the authorites. The BBC says this.
Secrecy surrounding counter-terrorism operations is fuelling mistrust of authorities, a study by independent think tank Demos suggests.
It urges the government and secret services to be more open to stop extremist groups using conspiracy theories to discredit them.
A Demos spokesman said: “Less-secret services could make Britain safer.”
The study calls for greater communication with trusted community leaders and individuals.
The report – entitled the Power of Unreason – says groups use conspiracy theories to recruit and radicalise people to commit acts of violence.
An example of one such theory is that the bombings in New York and London, on 11 September 2001 and 7 July 2005 respectively, were “inside jobs” carried out by authorities in the US and UK.Other theories highlighted were that “freemasons control the world economy through manipulation of paper currency”, that the UK government is “consciously seeking to destroy Islam” and that a “conspiracy between the Japanese government, the US, and the Jews existed to gain world domination”.
The study claims such theories are frequently adopted by extremist groups to demonise outsiders, discredit moderates and push them in a more extreme and sometimes violent direction.
As an example, over the last few years we’ve all heard many conspiracy theories about 9/11 from people who believed it was a plot by the US and ISrael against Islam.
But then use of these types of theories are nothing new. You only have to read histories of the Nazis to realise the untruths they pedalled against Jews, homsectuals and anybody else they thought inferior.
We should be more open as DEMOS says and fight these theories with the only weapon we have! The truth!
One of the links on the BBC report is to this page on their web site about a conspiuracy theory about the London bombings. What a load of old twaddle, this guy is saying. The trouble is it’s dangerous old twaddle and the BBC was absolutely right in exposing the twat behind it.
The Anonymous Widower 
The first victim in any war…is truth.
It doesnt matter what the truth about any subject actually is….
its in the way its told…
J
Comment by Pascali | August 30, 2010 |