Conspiracy of the day

I linked to an Irfan Hussain column a few weeks ago which described the efforts of a certain Maulana Fazlullah to proscribe polio vaccinations. If you recall, his exact reason was:

According to Islam and Shariah, people should just stay away from areas which are hit by contagious disease. It is not right to look for a cure before falling ill with a disease.

Well, looks like the Maulana has changed his mind. No, not about polio vaccinations being bad. No, he's changed his mind about why polio vaccinations are bad. You see, the good Maulana thinks that the vaccination drive is part of an American plan to keep fertility rates in Pakistan low. According to him, it is "a conspiracy of the Jews and Christians to stunt the population growth of Muslims." Oh, and by the way, his words are working - health officials in parts of NWFP are getting beaten up and some parents are not allowing their children to be vaccinated. Yay for Pakistan!