MH17, Palestine and silly theories

As much as I cannot imagine what it would have been if a Western civilian airliner had been shot over a mountainous part of Afghanistan, or over the Syrian skies, or over Sudan, I also find it hard to quantify the stupidity behind various conspiracy theories to explain the tragedy of flight MH17, which killed 298 innocent people.

Hours after news of the shooting down shocked Malaysians, we were bombarded with messages being shared on Facebook, WhatsApp and many other channels that  have lately become an open university for ignorant people to give their online course in simple graphics and text.

But it is also a good way to know the kind of people you have been hanging out with. The more idiots you have as friends, the more you will get such "shares" and messages on your mobile device. Thankfully, I had less of such messages on WhatsApp in the aftermath of the MH17 tragedy, a proof that I have been hanging around with intelligent people.

There is nothing wrong with conspiracy theories. They sometimes can turn out to be the truth, and challenge the narrative of the major media. They are usually useful when the truth of a certain incident is yet to be established, like in the flight MH370 incident, or even the 9/11 incident, which has many open questions.

Some theories are believable, some are good for amusement. And even though some sound downright foolish, they share something common with the generally accepted speculations and theories given by experts: they can’t be disproved and they can’t be proved either.

But when something is as clear as day, such as the MH17 tragedy, to suggest that there is a conspiracy behind it is downright stupidity, something capable only by someone handicapped by a postage-stamp sized brain.

Consider for example a message I recently received, what is probably a much-thought "analysis" of the MH17 tragedy. Much thought – because it certainly took a very fertile mind to come up with such fantasy. The message claims that Malaysia Airlines was being targeted because of Malaysia’s outspoken support for Palestinians! 

Or consider a posting making rounds in the past few days which says the MH17 incident was orchestrated to deviate world attention from Israel’s attack on Gaza.

As if the intense media coverage on Gaza has moved any of the Muslim leaders into taking action.

As if the intense media coverage on Gaza would inhibit the Zionists from perpetrating their annual Ramadan spring cleaning in Palestine.

Then there is also one insane theory: that Hamas deliberately sparked the Israeli “response” (yes, it is always “retaliation” when it comes to Israeli rockets pouring over Gaza), because then Hamas could collect millions of dollars worth of donations especially during Ramadan!

If that is not enough to tickle you, let me tell you another equally insane theory, which has been making rounds lately alongside our Islamic scholars’ jihad against the evil Shi’ites.

According to this theory, which by the way has no small following even among some Muslim academia and scholars in Malaysia, the whole saga of the nuclear stand-off between Iran and the US is a farce. It is all a show, they say, because Iran is actually under the thumbs of Zionist Israel. You see, the Shi’ite Iran and the Jews have this grand design in the Middle East. So with one stroke of ignorance, the whole crisis has been effectively given a whole new comic perspective.

It is people like these who undermine the struggle of the Palestinians, in their fight with fists and stones and third-rate rockets, against the Zionist thugs armed to the teeth, who fly over ragged Palestinian homes and watch concrete walls fall over their children.

It is these people whose stupidity has reduced the story of Palestine into a conflict between religions, when the clear fact is that it is about oppression, invasion, land grab and plunder.

Then there are those who can never differentiate between Jews and Zionists. They would probably die of confusion if they knew that some of the fiercest opponents of Zionism are from the Jewish religious community which attacked its secular nationalism. Those who are ignorant of this fact would continue using terms such as “Yahudi laknatullah” (Jews cursed by God), when the fact is the state of Israel is anything but Jewish, but one which is founded on plunder and which is run based on racism, the same way South Africa was once run.

Both the narrative of the Western media and the unthinking Facebook Muslims are not helping the Palestinians at all. One reduces the happenings in Palestine to “violence” between Palestinians and Israelis as if both represent two militarily powerful countries; the other fails to see the difference between Judaism and Zionism, which is the brutal cousin of our own Ketuanan Melayu, you know, that hotchpotch trinity that has come to be known as “Islam, Melayu dan Raja”.

So let’s not display our ignorance with conspiracy theories in something so straightforward as the MH17 tragedy.

If you see too many of those being "shared" at the expense of your mobile data, it is perhaps time to take a hard look at your circle of friends. – July 20, 2014.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.