Challenging the ‘official’ story of 9/11: Community narratives and conspiracy theories

This article examines the gap in meaning systems between the dominant mainstream understanding in North America of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the meaning given to it within different Pakistani communities in Canada and in Pakistan. It describes the emergence of 9/11 conspiracy theory discourses in three different studies involving Pakistani immigrants in Montreal and Pakistanis in Karachi, carried out at three different points in time over the last five years. The polarization of meaning in the war on terror between the host society and Muslim immigrant communities in North America is associated with the emergence of feelings of fear and threat in all communities. The results also suggest that views of local and global power relations play a role in shaping these conspiracy theory discourses.