The Nerd's Eye View

As the self-appointed "voice of rational Muslims" everywhere, I feel I have to speak out on (so-called) Dr Ayman el-Zawahiri's recent statement on behalf of Al-Qaeda. He was making a statement regarding the recent election of Barack Obama to the highest office in the land, and has, of course, stirred up controversy. It wasn't the usual threats, or the claims that Mr Obama was a puppet of "the Jews" or what have you, that I found to be particularly infuriating. No, it was the use of the term "house Negro", the genteel cousin of "house nigger", that really lit a fire under me.

The men in the caves in Afghanistan have a particular worldview, which, among other things needs the United States to be both oppressive and openly unjust. While The election of the Mr Obama to the highest office in the land undercuts part of that assertion. This is not to say that the particular audience that they are playing to will necessarily outright reject their message, but perception (especially the subtle ones of Mr Obama's racial make up and complicated religious past) is a powerful thing. Unless the new administration does something nakedly belligerent in the region, the tide of public opinion in the region can be shifted, finally. Frankly, this can/should be assisted with a PR campaign to paint the would-be theocrats in Afghanistan as racists based on these remarks. This would play particularly well in the non-Arab parts of the Muslim world (large swaths of Africa, south and southeast Asia - see where I'm going with this?).

As for me, I never liked these guys to begin with, but this remark just leaves a terrible taste in my mouth. Having been on the receiving end of Egyptian ideas about race and culture, I take even less kindly to this. Hopefully this will backfire on them... hard.