Masonic conspiracy theories

Notable conspiracy theories involving Freemasonry include:

• That the British judiciary is heavily infiltrated with Masons, who give fellow Masons "the benefit of the doubt" in court, subverting the legal system^[10][11]

Some conspiracy theories involving the Freemasons and the Illuminati also include the Knights Templar and Jews as part of the supposed plan for universal control of society. This type of conspiracy theory was described as early as 1792 by multiple authors, beginning in France and Scotland.^[1]

• That Freemasonry is a Jewish front for world domination or is at least controlled by Jews for this goal. An example of this is the anti-Semitic literary forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Adolf Hitler believed that Freemasonry was a tool of Jewish influence,^[12] and outlawed Freemasonry and persecuted Freemasons partially for this reason.^[13] The covenant of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claims that Freemasonry is a "secret society" founded as part of a Zionist plot to control the world.^[14] Hilaire Belloc thought Jews had "inaugurated" freemasonry "as a bridge between themselves and their hosts"^[15]
• That Freemasonry is tied to or behind Communism. The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco had often associated his opposition with both Freemasonry and Communism, and saw the latter as a conspiracy of the former; as he put it, "The whole secret of the campaigns unleashed against Spain can be explained in two words: masonry and communism".^[16] In 1950, Irish writer Denis Fahey republished a work by George F. Dillon under the title Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked as the Secret Power Behind Communism. Modern conspiracy theorists such as Henry Makow have also claimed that Freemasonry intends the triumph of Communism^[17]
• That Freemasons are behind income taxes in the US. One convicted tax protester has charged that law enforcement officials who surrounded his property in a standoff over his refusal to surrender after his conviction were part of a "Zionist, Illuminati, Free Mason [sic] movement".^[18] The New Hampshire Union Leader also reported that "the Browns believe the IRS and the federal income tax are part of a deliberate plot perpetrated by Freemasons to control the American people and eventually the world"^[19]

There are a number of claims, predominantly made by conservative Protestants,^[20] that Freemasons at higher degrees deceive those at lower degrees, and gradually reveal a separate, occult religion:

• That Freemasons worship Baal, Baphomet, Dajjal, or Rahu^[21]
• That Freemasonry is occult in nature and worships their own particular god, such as GAOTU the "Great Architect of the Universe", Gnosis, or Jahbulon, an amalgam of the gods YHWH, Baal, and Osiris^[22]
• The Syrian-Egyptian Wahhabi scholar Rashid Rida popularised anti-Semitic and masonic conspiracies across the Arab world and which would later be embraced by various Islamist movements in the 20th century. In Rida's worldview, Freemasonry was invented by Jews. Rida's views would be adopted in the 1988 Charter of Hamas^[23]

• That Freemasons (atNASA and other space agencies^[24])^{[failed verification]} deceive the public to hide the Earth being flat^[25]
• That humanoid reptiles are behind secret societies like the Freemasons and the Illuminati^[26]
• That some prominent murders involved Freemasons, including the cases of the Italian banker Roberto Calvi,^[27] and the U.S. president John F. Kennedy.^[3] A conspiracy theory about the death of the Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is that he was poisoned to death by the Freemasons due to the closure of Masonic lodges^[28]inTurkey in 1935. In 2015, Yeni Şafak claimed that his former prime minister İsmet İnönü was in charge of planning the murder.^[29]

• The Prague Cemetery, a novel by Umberto Eco
• The Lost Symbol, a novel by Dan Brown

• Anti-Masonry
• Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory

• Conspiracy of Hate – A Christian Perspective on the un-Christian Tactics of the anti-Masons, A.W.Harper, 1995.