Newsweek: Why Al Qaeda's Anti-Obama Tape Failed

The video message from Al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he called Barack Obama a "house Negro," demonstrates, if anything, that the terrorists are always damn good in PR. You feel disgusted? Horrified? That's exactly their aim. In this regard, Zawahiri's diabolical comparison of Obama and Malcolm X ("an honorable American who converted to Islam," as Zawahiri put it) is an even bolder move: not only do they insult the American president-elect, but they rub it into one of America's deepest wounds--the racial divisions and the profound antagonisms generated by Malcolm X's radical claims. In terms of "hatred arts," this is just brilliant. Those who are shocked by Zawahiri's words have merely to remember: spreading hate is the terrorists' job. Hating you is not enough; they also need you to hate them, so the struggle goes on unchallenged.

...

Al Qaeda's true problem with Obama has indeed nothing to do with the color of his skin. By proposing to meet Iran's Ahmadinejad without preconditions instead of just bombing him out, the American president-elect thinks outside of the confrontation box. The radicals just hate that. And above all, they hate the idea of the United States resuming the chase of Al Qaeda operatives in the mountains of the Pakistan-Afghanistan borders. He's coming to them, how could they not react fiercely?

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Whinger]

Direct from studio B in downtown Pakistan, the slave to violence and intolerence has spoken!

[BreakBS]

"Not only do they insult the American president-elect, but they rub it into one of America's deepest wounds--the racial divisions and the profound antagonisms generated by Malcolm X's radical claims.

Thank you, Ahmed Benchemsi, for locating the source of America's racial divisions--not 200 years of slavery, nor the genocide of the Native Americans, nor the expansionist American-Mexican war, nor Jim Crow laws, nor the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882, nor the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, nor the racialzed quota system, nor the imperial acquisitions of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines--no, you nailed it, racial divisions were generated by Malcolm X's radical claims.

The only thing radical about Malcolm X is that he spoke truth to power in a radically racist and white supremacist society. And despite the Civil Rights era and the messianic arrival of Obama, the picture isn't too different: a wall's being built to keep Mexicans out, Arab-Americans (as well as Arabs and Muslims internationally) are being illegally detained, the life expectancy for African-Americans is twenty years lower than whites and income is disproportionately less--need I say more? We have come a far way for the cosmetic face of America, but institutionalized racism and racist legislation have deep roots that have not been left behind. Maybe simply electing a Black President isn't the end of what is a lot soul searching and questioning of white privilege that we white folks need to do.

[shugao]

Terrorists degrade Islam. Some history. The Otttoman Turkish Empire started the ball rolling, degrading Islam before the world's eyes. Ataturk saved the day in Turkey with the secular oriented Young Turks Revolution (sea change at that time). Why does Zawahiri downmouth Ataturk? Wrong hero. Now we have the extreme fringe further degrading Islam. Sadly, the uneducated converts to terrorism don't really know what the Quran teaches. On the Western side we have prejudice against Muslims, and out of ignorance, those critics rarely if ever read the truth of their Holy Book. By the way, I'm not Muslim, but this Holy book is of God, the same God of all religions.

[slowhand0728]

Not sure HOW this Video FAILED...But to me status quo from these guys, they are not going to LIKE anything we do or who we elected anyway so there opinions are mute. Like any extremist, in just about any opinion you can talk until you blue in the face and they are never going to HEAR you. I was and I dont think most Americans were under the impression just because Obama won the election was the WHOLE world going to LOVE us now. The Love has not been there for a long time, and before you say it WAY before Bush. Remember all the other attacks from these clowns in the 80's and 90's, there is NO way they will change thier opinions about us.

[darthdarcy]

I think the music sucked..!

Get Quentin Tarantino to pick the music next time...!

Ok Ayman..?

[InspiredByTruth]

How is Zawahiri still making videos if he was captured in 2002?

Bin Laden's No 2 'captured in Iran'
* Rory McCarthy in Islamabad and Luke Harding in Kabul
* guardian.co.uk, Monday February 18 2002 17.18 GMT
Osama bin Laden's most senior lieutenant, the Egyptian militant Ayman al-Zawahiri, has been captured and jailed in Tehran, a leading Iranian newspaper reported yesterday.

Zawahiri, the founder of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, was arrested several days ago and has been imprisoned in the city's Evin jail, where political prisoners are usually held, the Hayat-e-Nou newspaper said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/feb/18/iran.afghanistan

[ThoughtAboutIt]

Captured doesn't necessarily mean unemployed. Its no secret and not disputed that Bin Laden worked with the CIA in expelling the USSR from Afghanistan. Zawahiri now works with them in their little independent film projects.

[deepfreezevideo]

Zawahiri's references to Malcolm X makes me think that we might actually be fighting a radical subset of
Louis Farrakhan's apostles. But then when I look at the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia I become confused again. Has Islam splintered into so many radicalized shards that we can't even count them all?
Has Al-Qaeda spurred Wahhabists to morph into a more fierce version of the one percenters who sell bean pies and murder in Oakland?

Will the real Islam please stand up?

[robXdion]

You need to learn the full story of Malcolm X and not these cartoon stereotypes you've been fed from a Spike Lee movie and old video clips.

[11907281]

The westboro baptist church represents all of christianity unless the "real Christianity" stands up.

Sounds foolish, doesn't it?

[fem56]

In some ways he may have helped him. Remember all the bigots calling Obama--Osama instead.

[Vurz]

I wasn't shocked or horrified at Ayman al-Zawahiri's nonsense; I was amused at how stupid it was.

It reminded me of the time that Al Qaeda offered the US troops that if they switched to Islam Al Qaeda would stop fighting them because Muslims don't fight each other. This was during the height of Sunni-Shiite violence.

I will be looking forward to Ayman al-Zawahiri's capture and trial, along with the capture and trials of the rest of Al Qaeda. I know Obama will be able to succeed where Bush failed.

[bbridges1962]

Ready...aim...

[newsmctado]

What most people tend to forget about Malcolm X is that toward the end of his life he renounced violence, racial separation or superiority (of any race) and instead embraced a peaceful and devout Islam. Like most controversial figures in history, supporters or detractors of Malcolm X tend to only remember the aspects of his life that support the own preconceptions. Malcolm X did support the use of violence in defense of civil rights. He was a fanatical segregationist in his early years. He extolled the virtues of the "ballot or the bullet", implying that African Americans had the right to commit violence if non-violent forms of change failed. However, later in his life he fully embraced non-violent methods of change, argued that Dr. King and Ghandi were much more effective in their forms of protest than he himself was and embraced a less militant version of Islam that contrasted strongly with the members of the Nation of Islam such as Louis Farrakan.

[deepfreezevideo]

That's why Zawahiri looks like such an old fool.
It's almost as if he bought his copy of X's autobiography from the Farrakhan bookstore.

[Shellly]

i don't believe this tape even came from Al Qaeda...some of the terms don't sound like the terms they use.

[Lahonda]

The prior administration represented a polarizing element in the world's perception of America and therefore the American public that put them in power and possibly supported them. Obama's election has turned that issue on its head.

They now need a new target and BHO is too much like one of them perceptually to ignite the necessary fires of hatred to will continue to influence reasoning people to support an extended conflict. We now have the opportunity to satisfy all those "Missourians" out there in the world... in other words, Barack needs to "Show me" as well as he can.

Al Qaeda has already succeeded in changing America's political landscape for all time. The question is whether it's still about hatred or gaining the opportunity to finally live in peaceful co-existence and mutual respect.

[Samalabear]

I would only add remember Israel's Prime Minister Begin -- cut down by his own radicals because they did not want peace. We have to hope that moderate Middle Eastern countries are so sick of the violence and hatred now that they will work closely with Obama to bring peace. That being said, though, Iraq wants us out sooner than later (not a fan of Al-Sadr, by any means, but I can understand where it's coming from), and King George has been doing a lot of damage in Afghanistan with the increased civilian casualties, the kind of activities that more power to radicals.

[hatethehype]

"The profound antagonisms generated by Malcolm X's radical claims"

This article was clearly written by someone who does not know or chooses to ignore history.
I am an Obama supporter and I take exception to the above quoted statement.
Malcolm X was a hero to the black cause in a very turbulent & violent time for African Americans.
The antagonisms that existed in those days were generated by the authorities who were quick to attack peaceful protestors exercising their right to demonstrate. Police dogs, high-powered fire hoses, billy clubs and the wanton shooting of innocents by those sworn to serve & protect created the Malcolm X's, SNCC's, CORE's & The Black Panthers.
None of you care to give Malcolm his due, but he was the greatest Civil Rights Leader that America ever produced, bar none.
Quite frankly, America did not deserve him.

[soapington]

I agree, the remark rivals al-Zawahiri's own tin-eared lack of historical grasp.

[Df7702]

To them anyone who is oppressed and decides to fight back is radical. If the status quo is slavery than any one who wishes to be free is radical. Ive never heard the people who where hanging blacks referred to as radical . He was a great man and if fighting to reclaim the dignity of a race of people that has been enslaved for generations by whatever means is radical . I guess you can add many more to that list .

[soapington]

Ayman al-Zawahiri is regarded as the intellectual of this gang in much the same way as Paul Wolfowitz used to be regarded as the intellectual of the Bush administration. Like Wolfowitz, he is ham-fisted, tin-eared, and has a record of abject and often comical failure that belies his reputation for clear-eyed efficiency.