Conspiracy theories rest on reifying a religion into a self-motivating agent

Evidence

The stereotype of the inherently intolerant, aggressive jihadi that informed British concerns for a potentially India-wide Wahhabi conspiracy rested on a reified understanding of Islam that pictured the religion as a self-motivating agent. … Again, others dissented. For instance, in response to the anti-Muslim sentiment he observed filling a newspaper’s columns following the Muslim assassination of a British chief justice, the Orientalist W. Nassau Lees portrayed the multi-vocality of Islamic law, emphasizing how most Islamic jurists had ruled that Muslims could live under a Christian government, although some groups—such as Wahhabis—would not. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 174

Categorization

• SEED: The reification move — treating a demographic as one agent with a plan — is a general mechanism of conspiracy cognition worth an essay applying it across Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and other panics.
• XREF: connects to: Modern anti-Catholic conspiracy targets organizational secrecy, not theology — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 625; The men-in-black legend’s ambiguity lets believers read them as agents, conspirators, or aliens — Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic…, 413; A think tank allegedly used covert tactics to take over mainline Protestant churches — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 279