By no means I claim that I figured out what aliens are ultimately up to. I also can't say I am very transparent.
This section is relatively new. Some of the previous speculation is possibly due to indirect result of confusion caused by alien activity. Things can be explained with miracles instead. But obviously if there is a way to explain something it is not possible to assume it as a miracle.
In regards of alien and human interaction my current most likely view is that they don't manipulate people but they use the potential. Very similar things are written in Quran. Not that I am depending on Quran nor I think it is anything beyond inspirational with current understanding but it really seems like aliens are not like trying to hide anything at all. It is obviously pretty clear they don't necessarily value human life. Some people may even speculate they don't even shy away from harming people in mass as part of some fantasies. I think this likely wrong. Likely they just don't care mostly. But very weak likely.
In Islamic Literature aliens referred as Jinns. (Read this.)