Are black Muslims with the terrorists?

As my boy Billy X Sunday, who really does mean well, pointed out the other day, perhaps no one has taken advantage of the promotional opportunity provided by the mixtape scene more than Osama bin Laden. Everytime you turn around, bin Laden has got a new tape out bragging about 9/11, talking shit about the Queen of England, and trying to swing the election in favor of the Democrats as if he was Russell Simmons.

I've joke-not-joked before about black Muslim rappers such as Lupe Fiasco and comments section gadfly TPAR being with the terrorists, but recently Osama bin Laden's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri - his weed carrier, if you will - put a tape out that specifically targets black people for recruitment into al-Qaida. In the tape, he name checks Malcolm X a/k/a al-Hajj Malik al-Shabaaz, whom he refers to as a martyr in the fight against American oppression.

According to a transcript of the hour-long screed, Zawahiri said this is "the culture which the struggler and martyr Malcom X (may Allah have mercy upon him) fought against when he told his repressed black brothers in America, 'If you're not ready to die for it, take the word "freedom" out of your vocabulary.'"

"Freedom is something that you have to do for yourself," he quotes Malcolm X as as saying. "The price of freedom is death."

Ruh roh.

Which begs the question: How likely are black Muslims to actually pull some shit like al Qaida? I mean, it's one thing to join a bullshit religion just to spite white people, but it's a whole other thing to let some A-rab talk you into blowing yourself up. As much as I like to think that my people have better sense than that, the article where I copped the above quotes also includes the following list of terror plots involving black Muslims which have been foiled by the government since 9/11.

- A group of black Muslim converts in Miami who allegedly conspired to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago (some had rap sheets).

- A Chicago black Muslim, Derrick Shareef, who allegedly plotted to blow up a local shopping mall.

- A black U.S. soldier, Hassan Abujihaad, who allegedly fed terrorists classified information about U.S. battleship movements in the Strait of Hormuz.

- Black ex-con Muslims in Torrance, Calif., who allegedly planned to attack military recruiting stations and synagogues in the state. The plot was initially hatched in prison.

I know at least in the case of the kids who were going to blow up the Sears Tower, the extent of their terror plotting didn't involve much other than copping matching jump suits and standing around in a parking lot talking shit; but I always took that more so as a testament to the utter inability of so many black men these days to actually follow through on their plans than proof that they weren't real terrorists. But what can I say? I'm a racist like that.

At least I'm not with the terrorists.

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Interestingly enough, I joked before about Osama bin Laden trying to swing the election in favor of the Democrats as if he was Russell Simmons, but even this new tape includes a bit where Zawahiri suggests that America forfeited its chance at protection from terrorism by re-electing Bush Mengele in 2004. "The Americans deserve what they're getting," said Zawahiri. "They chose this liar two times, so let them pay the price for their choice." Damn.