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Advice to a “house negro” — from a “terrorist”

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Nov 20, 2008

Well, Mr. President-Elect, you’ve been publicly berated as a “house negro” by Muslim extremist Ayman al-Zawahiri. Wear it as a badge of honor, sir. You’ve scampered under Zawahiri’s skin. He doesn’t know how else to attack your legitimacy, so he assaults your humanity in the hope that fellow Muslims will project their baggage onto you.

See, too many Muslims today remain nervous in their own skins and thus cower before their clerical masters. Fearful of authenticity, Muslims are intimidated into slavery. Deep down, they know it. And they hate themselves for it. By labeling you the “house slave,” Zawahiri aims to distill their self-hatred into a collective repudiation of your chutzpah.

I’m well aware of this ploy. It routinely appears as a fusillade of epithets in my own email inbox. Consider this message, sent to me just last week under the subject line: “You are a Terrorist!”

Stop terrorizing the Muslim Ummah you kaffir-loving (literally, you even lick kaffir vag!) lesbian whore… You probably never were a muslim, just a brown dyke bitch. - Eesa Abdullah

Quoi? Moi? A terrorist?

I suppose I am — to those whose identities are so fragile, whose sense of self so stunted, that they must dehumanize others to feel remotely valid. Such people can’t abide, let alone accept, our shared humanity. Under these circumstances, then, it’s quite true that they feel terrorized by a campaign to reconcile Islam with universal human rights.

Similarly, Mr. President-Elect, you’re the house negro to those whose ideology results in maiming, raping, and murdering more Muslims than the foreign forces they indict. Do you detect a pattern here?

It would be a no-brainer for me to say, “Pay no mind. Ignore Zawahiri.” But that’s not what I’m saying. Instead, my advice is to thank the rhetorical pugilist, for he hands you the highest of compliments. He’s acknowledging your personal solidity. And, after thanking Zawahiri, use his ugly message to tell Muslims the world over that you have faith in their capacity to be better.

It’s what you do best. Do it again.

Still, I wasn’t born yesterday. Not for a minute do I suggest that milk and honey will suddenly flow from your generosity. It won’t. If people like Ayman al-Zawahiri and Eesa Abdullah ooze bile, then what do we make of someone entirely different who writes me a similar email — plainly stating “Dyke Bitch” — but whose automated signature sweetly reads as follows:

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.

As you already know, Mr. President-Elect, the world is an absurd place. I, for one, will stay grateful for the lessons — and laughs — that it offers.