Support a new investigation of 9/11.

But let’s NOT endorse religiously bigoted “Illuminati” claims.

 

New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry endorses the 9/11 Truth movement’s call for a new investigation of 9/11 - a more truly independent followup to the 9/11 Commission - though we don’t endorse any particular theory about what the U.S. government did or didn’t do regarding the 9/11 attacks.

 

Alas, the 9/11 Truth movement has become a magnet for all manner of conspiracy claims, some of which are reasonable hypotheses, but many of which are not so reasonable, including some religiously bigoted claims. By no means does everyone in the 9/11 Truth movement endorse religiously bigoted claims. Many 9/11 Truth activists do not. But some prominent leaders in the movement do endorse them. We call on the 9/11 Truth movement to reject religiously bigoted claims, or at least to examine them critically.

 

“Illuminati” claims are very similar to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion except that, instead of Jews, “the Illuminati” are usually alleged to be atheists, “Satanists,” occultists, or Pagans. Some folks have even claimed that the 9/11 attacks were a “Wiccan” human sacrifice! “The Illuminati” are alleged to be the secret rulers of the world, and they are alleged to practice human sacrifice and other ritual atrocities on a massive scale. “Illuminati” claims are often accompanied by other false claims, e.g. about the Federal Reserve System, based on writings of notorious Jew-haters such as Eustace Mullins.

 

Progressive political movements, such as feminism, the gay rights movement, and the environmentalist movement, are alleged to be plots by “the Illuminati” to destroy civilization. Thus, “Illuminati” claims are an attack on the humanistic values of modern secular democratic society, as well as an attack on the specific religious minorities that are scapegoated and demonized - in much the same way that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery produced in Russia back around 1900, was intended as a royalist attack on democracy, as well as an attack on Jews.

 

There is indeed such a thing as an international ruling class. And there is indeed such a thing as the U.S foreign policy establishment, whose activities are often duplicitous and should be watched carefully. And there is indeed a secretive religious group that many high U.S. officials do belong to - but it’s not a Pagan, occultist, or Satanist group. It’s a Christian group, “The Family,” a.k.a. “the C Street house,” led by Doug Coe.

There is no good reason to believe that the Anglo-American ruling class practices "human sacrifice" in a literal, religious sense. War can be said to be “human sacrifice,” but only in a metaphorical sense. The American ruling class does not wage war for religious reasons, as a literal offering to some god -- except insofar as Bush’s war policies may have been influenced, to whatever degree, by his Christian apocalyptic beliefs.. War is horrible enough without complicating the issue with spurious claims of literal, allegedly Pagan or Satanist "human sacrifice," thereby defaming modern, law-abiding Satanists, occultists, and Pagans - most of whom are not elite.

 

 Some people have made a lot of noise about the symbolic human sacrifices, using an effigy, performed at the annual retreat of the Bohemian Grove, an elite men's club in San Francisco, at the beginning of its annual summer retreat. But to argue that symbolic human sacrifice implies real, literal human sacrifice is precisely the same fallacious claim that some ancient Romans made against the early Christians. After all, Christians practice symbolic divine/human sacrifice and symbolic cannibalism, a.k.a. "Holy Communion." Given the Bohemian Club’s prohibition on discussing business matters during its retreat, the “cremation of care” ceremony is most likely just a dramatic way of saying “No more talk about anything serious now; let’s just party!". It is also highly unlikely that most members of the U.S. elite are serious Pagans, occultists, or Satanists..

 

The real-life Bavarian Illuminati, who existed back in the late 1700's, were clearly not a world-ruling elite; they were soon outlawed and suppressed. They were a group of atheists (plus some Deists and occultists) who had to be secretive because atheists were persecuted back then. They advocated many principles that most educated people in the West now consider axiomatic to modern civilization, such as the separation of church and state.

 

As a result, “The Illuminati” have long been demonized in anti-democratic and other right wing propaganda The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were plagiarized from earlier polemics against “the Illuminati,” among other literary sources. Paranoia about “the Illuminati” was revived in the 1960's by the John Birch Society. It was then popularized, in the 1970's and 1980's, by Christian religious right wingers such as Tim LaHaye and Pat Robertson, and by fraudulent “ex-Satanists” such as Mike Warnke.

 

Given the long and bloody history of conspiratorial claims against various religious groups, we ask that no one accept such claims without first giving them a lot of critical scrutiny.

Committee for 9/11 Accountability

New Yorkers Against Religion-Based Bigotry

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