What do Al Qaeda and Illinois Nazis have in common?
Al Qaeda is beginning to articulate its approach to the Obama administration: Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites. The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama ...
Al Qaeda is beginning to articulate its approach to the Obama administration: Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites. The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader. 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." This report observes that, "The audio plays over still pictures of al-Zawahri, Malcolm X praying, and Obama with Jewish leaders." For some reason, this whole "Obama is the tool of the Jews" line put forward by Al Qaeda does remind me of this: Also, to those people who insisted during the campaign that Obama was actually a secret radical Muslim -- does this refute that charge or does it simply show the cunning, complex web weaved by radical Islam? Question to readers: to Americans, this kind of rhetorical thrust will seem pretty laughable. Will it also play that way abroad?
Al Qaeda is beginning to articulate its approach to the Obama administration:
Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites. The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is “the direct opposite of honorable black Americans” like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader. 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.”
This report observes that, “The audio plays over still pictures of al-Zawahri, Malcolm X praying, and Obama with Jewish leaders.” For some reason, this whole “Obama is the tool of the Jews” line put forward by Al Qaeda does remind me of this:
Also, to those people who insisted during the campaign that Obama was actually a secret radical Muslim — does this refute that charge or does it simply show the cunning, complex web weaved by radical Islam? Question to readers: to Americans, this kind of rhetorical thrust will seem pretty laughable. Will it also play that way abroad?
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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