[Hmntezmb]

Actually, the translation was more "House Slave".

THIS morning comes a typically rambling and offensive rant (transcript) from Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's number two, on Barack Obama's election. Mr Zawahiri unfavourably compares Mr Obama to Malcolm X, while footage shows Mr Obama praying at the Western Wall. The word "crusader" comes up with dreary predictability, much as a teenager says "like".

Somehow, Mr Zawahiri is convinced that even though Mr Obama is soon to become the most powerful man in the world, he is, in Malcolm X's terminology, a "house negro", the whites' favoured slave who lived in comfort and cared for the master. Like those in Cairo and Tehran who thought that some invisible power-structure wouldn't "let" Mr Obama win the election, Mr Zawahiri seems unable to grasp the basics of democracy. So here it is, Mr Zawahiri: Mr Obama won the election. He will soon run the United States. To put it crudely, he is the master, and a lot of very powerful white people will soon be snapping to his orders.

But one quick correction. The press is incorrectly reporting—and this is of course not to defend the terrorist—that Mr Zawahiri called Mr Obama a "house negro". His use of these words has been the headline-grabber. The video shows clips of Malcolm X using the term. But Mr Zawahiri calls Mr Obama one of the "house slaves" ("a'biid al-bayt"), not "house Negro" ("zinjii al-bayt", as Malcolm X's words are translated). Mr Zawahiri is a criminal and a loon, but even so, his actual words, offensive enough, should be reported correctly.