Reactions to the recent crash of the EgyptAir flight between Paris and Cairo are typical in their resort to paranoid conspiracy theories. It was the Muslim cleaning staff! No, it was Israel! Others blame the airlines themselves, and even the UK legal system.
What’s behind such thinking? To find meaning in chaos, surely. Also, to provide a sense of knowing what others do not. And another thing:
…they give license and justification for the hatred that those who hold them would otherwise feel ashamed to express. Conspiracy theorists (other than those who are outright mad) are generally dissatisfied with life and full of resentment; it is very rarely that a conspiracy theorist laughs at the state of the world. Acting on their fantasies, conspiracy theorists are responsible for a great deal of harm.
There have been quite a few conspiracies by Islamists to blow things up. Why would it be harmful, or show resentment and dissatisfaction with life to assume when an event that typically involves a deliberate act of terrorism actually is an act of terrorism?