Thursday, February 28, 2008

al-Qaeda hates Obama al Farsi

The release of photos of Obama wearing a turban and African tribal robes seems to have infuriated Al Qaeda, if the messages at the jihadi webforum "Al Hesah" are any indication. MSNBC's FirstRead blog has the details:

Evan Kohlmann of Global Terror Alert, and an NBC News terrorism analyst, was among those who watched as the Al Hesbah message board lit up. Al Qaeda sympathizers cited the image as evidence that American political leaders, particularly Hillary Clinton, want to portray Islam as a political negative.

“In this case,” Kohlmann said, “it would appear that the publication of the Obama photo, along with the insinuation of an intended negative political impact from being classified as ‘Muslim,’ has only served to antagonize the ranks of those who admire and support al Qaeda.”

This discussion has been viewed several hundred times on the Al-Hesbah network, Kohlmann adds, and it has been among the top 40 most popular discussions on Al-Hesbah the past three days. Most of the discussions are about events in the Islamic world, particularly the conflict between the West and Islamic militants.
[...]
“Not only are they enraged by the implication that being Muslim is something to be ashamed of,” Kohlmann added, “but moreover, they are nearly equally indignant about the much-rumored notion that Obama (who has repeatedly declared his faith in Christianity and his support for Israel) is somehow in league with them.”

In fact, Kohlmann added, al-Qaeda supporters are so insistent about their hatred for Obama that they have gone as far as to portray him as an "Iranian agent" secretly sent to take over the United States and fight a war against Sunni Muslims.

One user, with a login that suggests Saudi nationality, claimed in his response, "Obama is actually of Persian-Iranian origin. Many of the Persians emigrated to Kenya after the fall of the Persian empire... . We ask Allah to destroy Obama, Kerry, Clinton, America, its allies, and its slaves."

“As far as they are concerned,” Kohlmann said, “there is basically no difference between Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or even George Bush.”


I find it amusing - and typical - that as usual the Ultimate Enemy are the Shi'a. Of course from Al Qaeda's perspective, there is one meta-Enemy, a conglomeration of the Shi'a, the Jews, America, Sex, and ... I don't know what, whatever else comes along I suppose. Still, the idea of Obama being a Persian "Manchurian" candidate is pretty hilarious. No one can fault Al Qaeda for an excess of logic.

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