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The group blog of The American Prospect

AL QAEDA'S MOST EPIC FAIL EVER.

Al Qaeda plays a little identity politics:

In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect, along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, "house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.

The best part about this is that a knee-jerk patriotic response implicitly rejects the notion of black American culture as oppositional by definition. And doing so is an act of solidarity with the future President of the United States!

There's been a lot of skepticism about an Obama victory shifting the Muslim world's view of the United States, but judging by this statement at the very least it's made Al Qaeda's efforts to develop a compelling rhetorical indictment of America visibly more difficult.

--A. Serwer



COMMENTS

Hey AQ! Is Barack Obama stealing your revolutionary thunder? Because to me it sounds like you are pathetic race baiting losers just like Sarah Palin...Sorry we didnt continue to vote for white trash losers who would help you recruit...but last time I checked Americans do not let AQ run our entire foreign Policy program...Oh thats right we DID...

But there is a new sheriff in town Al-Zhblahl blah blah....His name is Barack Obama...He beat the Clintons and the Bushies...He is coming after you next and your people will love him like we do and cast you aside. Maybe you losers should go join Loser anonymous along with Bush,McCain,and Palin...because there is a fired up American freight train coming to run you power hungry greedy losers over.

@Becky: AQ were always pathetic race baiting losers. See: Sudanese Civil War 1985-2005

Becky, and what's more: His name is Barack *Hussein* Obama - man, that must sting Al Qaeda! Who would have thought his middle name would come in handily so early...

Wait, I'm confused. A terrorist who delights in killing innocent American and Iraqi civilians might also be racially insensitive? Boy, now I'm really mad at him. I could forgive the mass murder, but racial epithets are really beyond the pale.

Who cares what he calls President Obama or anybody else. He's got a date with a Predator drone, which can't come soon enough.

Adam, conservatives always reject "the notion of black American culture as oppositional by definition". We reject race-baiting. We reject racial politics. We were very comfortable with Rice and Powell in high-profile positions of power in our country. People on the left, of course, called Rice and Powell "house negroes". That's why this clown from AQ called them that. For the past few years now, AQ has regularly and conciously echoed the language of the western left, because they see the left as a possible ally. Remember, it was the left who wanted to "understand" AQ after 9/11; it was the left thought we should all ask "why do they hate us?" Haven't you noticed them talking about globalism? IIRC they even name-checked climate change a few years ago.

The joke here isn't that the right has been put in the position of reflexively supporting a black American; we've been supporting Rice and Powell for years. Rather, the joke is that that you have been put in the position of reflexively supporting America.

By the way, hey, Becky up there, what's the gibberish about Palin's "race baiting"? All I'm familiar with is the facts, so obviously the "race baiting" is new to me. I'm always curious about the strange and wonderful world of the imagination that you people live in. The class hatred is very interesting, by the way. Are you insecure about your own social class? Don't be. Social class is bull***t.

P.S. By the way, damn near all Republicans reflexively support any American president against our country's enemies. We don't have to be "tricked" into it. It's called "patriotism", and it's normal. In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, even some pretty darn liberal Democrats reacted that same way. Of course, it didn't last. For liberals, patriotism is an occasional passing fad.

But trust me, we're not like you. We'll be patriotic for the next four years, and the next, and the next, even when we don't like the guy who's in charge at the moment. We'll just go right on doing what's right and feeling sorry for you poor floppy little things whose only loyalty is to some shabby little political party.

Yeah, republicans are the most nicest, color-blind people in world. It's just some weird quirk or media brainwashing that's managed to drive all the non-white, loudly Christian folk to find you frightening and to reject you in record numbers.

Trolling blogs like this will surely make everyone see that Republican policies are sober thoughtful things and not the seething resentment of a bunch of know-nothing white morons that they seem to be no matter how what angle you try and examine them from.

this isn't a left or right thing. it's an American thing. the patriotism these comments arouse runs across party lines. let's stop being immature and start being American.

@ Confusion: props.

this isn't a left or right thing. it's an American thing. the patriotism these comments arouse runs across party lines. let's stop being immature and start being American.

Co-sign. We're all in the same boat here. When they ran those planes into the towers on 9/11, they did not care if there were black, white or brown people in them. They just wanted to kill

ed hardy ed hardy clothing
ed hardy clothing

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