The Making of a Conspiracist

I recently wrote a three-part series about an old friend and collaborator of mine, Salim Mansur, who has turned into a full-fledged conspiracist. I cannot fully explain what happened to Salim, but I thought it would be instructive for readers of my blog to read the full story.

Part One

Part one of my series looks at Salim Mansur's writing for various publications in Canada and the United States. I first met Salim in 2010 while he was a Professor at the University of Western Ontario. He was an anti-Islamist Muslim who supported Israel, and I brought him to Ottawa to speak at events held by my film society. I even brought Salim to Ottawa to commemorate a 9/11 memorial with Bret Stephens the well-known commentator for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Part Two

Part Two examined the "new" Salim Mansur and I present some of current writings. He rails against the Jews and Israel, and even sees Jeffrey Epstein as a Mossad agent working for the interests of Israel. Not surprisingly, he has become a JFK assassination conspiracist.

Part Three

I want to thank my good friend David Roytenberg for publishing my series on Salim Mansur on his Substack. I strongly suggest that people subscribe to David's Canadian Zionist Forum.

Part Three is a look at Salim's new friends who are 9/11 truthers, holocaust deniers, and JFK assassination conspiracists.

I don't know really understand what happened to my old friend. When Salim was rejected as a candidate for the Conservative Party, he became a candidate for the People's Party of Canada (PPC), a fringe populist party, and it was there that he made a whole new group of friends.

Perhaps the Covid-19 pandemic played a role. It's hard to say.

But once you go down the conspiracist rabbit hole, you will be exposed to all sorts of horrible nonsense. And antisemitism, at its heart, is a conspiracy theory.

I took this photo earlier this week in Dealey Plaza.