Al Qaeda's latest video is pretty strange. But one thing that struck me as especially odd was the slur of President-elect Barack Obama as a "house Negro," which is not actually a direct translation of the Arabic.
If you listen to the clip in question, al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri actually calls Obama abid al-beit, or "house slave." Yet al Qaeda translates it as "house Negro," which is the term that Malcolm X used. I guess they wanted to keep the parallel exact?
In any case, I wonder if this message might actually play better in some parts of the Arab world than we think. Yes, it's a pretty crude racial epithet, and for a pan-Islamic movement that encompasses Sudanese, Uzbek, and Indonesian members along with the core group of Arabs, it's probably going to ruffle some feathers. But there is a surprising amount of anti-black racism in Arab countries, and Zawahiri may be hoping to tap into that to drum up new recruits.
Finally, in case you were wondering how this incident is being handled on conservative talk radio, here's what Rush Limbaugh said on the matter:
Well,
Barack Obama has gone from the 'Magic Negro' now to the 'house negro,'
according to Ayman al-Zawahiri. [...] Now,
the question about this that we all have, ladies and gentlemen, is what
will Obama's reaction be? I don't know that he can turn his back on
al-Zawahiri any more than he can turn his back on his own preacher, but
don't jump to any conclusions. We don't know what he's going to do
here.
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