IN SHORT, DR. AL-ZAWAHIRI’S USE OF THE WORD, “ABEED,” WASN’T MEANT AS A COMPLEMENT

There are certain words or phrases that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. More often than not, these have racist over tones.

During the course of our recent elections, I would, from time to time, hear some idiot refer to our new President Elect using the dreaded “N” word. When a group of skin heads were recently arrested for threatening President Elect Obama’s life, that word was bandied about as if it were proper to use. It’s not. It never is.

Recently, Dr. Ayman Muhammad Rabaie al-Zawahiri, the second in command to al Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden decided to make his pronouncement on the incoming President of the United States. After listening to his statement, I was equally offended. Al-Zawahiri used the Arabic idiom, “abeed al bayit,” in describing Senator Obama. Literally, this translates to house servant. Figuratively, it says much more. In fact, it speaks volumes about the alleged freedom fighters of Islamic terrorism more than it does about us and our electoral process.

Over the course of my career, I have had many business relationships with people of Middle Eastern heritage. Mostly, these people have had light skin. They were both Muslim and Jewish. Uniformly, they used the word, “abeed,” in referring to people of African descent.

Since I am not an Arabic speaker, I took my acquaintances word in their defining “abeed” as being the Arabic equivalent to our “N” word. In short, it wasn’t a complement. When Dr. al-Zawahiri issued his recent statement, I decided to delve a little deeper into the words he uttered. I learned that the idiomatic meaning of abeed al bayit, is just as I described, but there is more.

Some African Americans use the phrase, “Uncle Tom” to describe members of their race who have grown close to Caucasian colleagues and friends. The term comes from the Civil War novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which describes the kowtowing ways of house slaves during one of our country’s most shameful periods as opposed to the belligerent and more independent attitude of field workers, who were often subjected to far harsher treatment than those who worked directly for the slave owners.

In using the idiom that translates to “house servant,” Dr. al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician, was describing the President Elect as being subservient to his White masters. I believe Dr. al-Zawahiri and his master, bin-Laden, will receive a rude surprise when our new leader assumes his new position. I believe that, unlike the current occupant of the White House, President Obama will prove to have a strong back bone and will do what is necessary to defend and protect our country and its way of life. That doesn’t make him a house servant. It makes him the competent man that we elected. That makes him a man who will seek out our enemies, our real enemies, and destroy them, once and for all. He will do this for the good of our country, and he will also do it for the good of all humanity. It is something President Bush was incapable of doing. It is something that I fully expect will be successfully accomplished by President Obama.

It would seem that Dr. al-Zawahiri made his statement more to demean Senator Obama in the Third World than to defame him in his own country. However, by all accounts, the doctor’s statement may have backfired, causing many Muslims in Africa to reconsider their support of a radical Arab leader who defames a man of their people who has risen to the position of Leader of the Free World.

Sorry, doc, you still may be good at inspiring insane folks like the monsters that attacked Mumbai this week, but normal people, no matter what religion they practice, see you for what you are, an even bigger monster than the terrorists who do your bidding. And when the President that you have incorrectly called an “abeed al bayit” brings you and your cohort bin Laden to your ignominious ends, as you die, you will understand that the alleged house servant is really your true master.

HENRY A. HONIG – THE PUNDIT