So much for Al Qaeda "feeling out" the new guy. Judging by this new message by Al Qaeda's # 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the group is alarmed at Obama's global popularity--particulalrly in the Muslim world--and is looking to counteract it. If Obama proves to be a uniting figure on a global scale who wins worldwide adulation, even among Muslims, that will be a very bad thing for Al Qaeda. Apparently, petty racial politics are the group's solution. From Breitbart:
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."
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 racial rhetoric is a dumb, alienating move by al-Zawahiri. For me, it only hearkens back to the Muslim and Arab world's own shameful history with African slavery.
But this message does bring up a more substanative, interesting point. Right now, Al Qaeda can rationalize attacks on the US as strikes against the Great Satan in the name of the Islam. But what if Obama wins raves in the Muslim world--which includes Al Qaeda's would-be core constituents--with his policies, outreach and "more evenhanded" approach to Israel? Those policies may not be great for the U.S. and Israel (we won't know until after Inauguration Day), but if they benefit the Muslim world, why wouldn't Islamic nations hop on board the Obama Express?
Would Al Qaeda then face a backlash?
It seems Al Zawahiri sees that possibility and is looking to counteract it asap by reminding Muslims that America will remain an infidel oppressor of Muslims, no matter who is in charge.