Zawahiri wants to sow political

and racial discontent among American Muslims,

focusing primarily on blacks,

who form the single most numerous group

in the US Muslim community

He spoke of Malcolm X as

a fellow Islamic "struggler and martyr"

The latest videotaped interview of al-Qaeda

deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahiri is al-Qaeda's

most sophisticated and nuanced attempt yet

to bedevil US domestic politics

And it highlights the long-standing fascination

that al-Qaeda and many other Islamist groups have

with the position of black Americans in US society,

and the access they could provide al-Qaeda

In an hour-plus videotaped interview broadcast last Saturday, al-Qaeda deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahiri answered questions from an unnamed interviewer from al-Qaeda's video arm, Al-Sahab Productions.

In the video, Zawahiri's presentation introduces several new elements that may portend an increasing al-Qaeda effort to make itself part of domestic US politics and to appeal to the religious sentiments and societal and economic dissatisfactions of American Muslims, especially black Muslims.

Al-Qaeda wants all people to know, Zawahiri said, "that when we wage jihad in Allah's path, we aren't waging jihad to lift oppression from Muslims only; we are waging jihad to lift oppression from all mankind, because Allah has ordered us never to accept oppression, wherever it may be".

He concluded this part of the interview by inviting "all the world's weak and oppressed ones to Islam, the religion of freedom and rejection of tyranny, the religion which ... produced the 19 martyrs [of September 11, 2001], who demolished the symbol of America's arrogance".

Beyond this expansion, Zawahiri clearly sought to begin a process of sowing political and racial discontent among American Muslims, focusing primarily on blacks, who form the single most numerous group in the US Muslim community.

For the first time, Zawahiri identified al-Hajj Malik al-Shabazz - Malcolm X - as a fellow Islamic "struggler and martyr". Quoting words he attributed to Shabazz, Zawahiri said Shabazz's ideas recognized what many "seasoned" Islamist groups and leaders in the Muslim world have missed, namely:

If you are not ready to die for it, take the word freedom out of your vocabulary ... I believe in a religion that believes in freedom.

Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion ...

Concerning non-violence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks ...

We are non-violent with people who are non-violent with us, but we are not non-violent with anyone who is violent with us ...

Any time you beg another man to set you free, you will never be free. Freedom is something you have to do for yourself. The price of freedom is death.

Zawahiri told American Muslims that Malcolm X drew these "powerful concepts" from Islam, and that they are as applicable today to the oppressed condition of black American Muslims as they were in his lifetime (1925-65).

Al-Qaeda's deputy said to black American Muslims, "I hope no one replies to me that blacks in America have been delivered from its tyranny because there are the likes of [former secretary of state] Colin Powell - the liar of the Security Council - and Condoleezza Rice in power."

Using what he claimed was Shabazz's analysis, Zawahiri identified Powell and Rice as "house slaves", blacks who prospered because they were obedient and helpful to their masters.

Zawahiri then said that the current condition of most black American Muslims is much closer to that of what Shabazz described as "field slaves", blacks who "lived in huts, have nothing to lose ... they felt the sting of the lash".

This inferior status, Zawahiri claimed, was best exemplified by the black American Muslims who today are serving in the US military:

I am hurt when I find a black American fighting the Muslims under the American flag.

Why is he fighting us when the racist Crusader regime in America is persecuting him like it persecutes us, and oppressing him like it oppresses us?

And perhaps his slave ancestors whom America kidnapped from Africa were Muslims like us.

The racist American Crusader regime is using him and the other weak and oppressed to die so that the criminals in the White House can amass their fortunes and add to their millions, whereas he receives scraps after his blood is spilled or he comes out of the war a cripple.

And I tell the soldier of color in the American army that the racist Crusader regime kidnapped your ancestors to exploit them in developing their resources.

Today it is using you for the same purpose, after they altered the look of the shackles and changed the type of chains and try to make you believe that you are fighting for democracy and the American dream ...

And after you achieve for them what they want, they will throw you out into the street like an old shoe.

To stress his last point - and add fuel to the fire raging in US politics over health care for combat veterans - Zawahiri related a story he "heard on the BBC in English this past March 17 about thousands of discharged wounded soldiers who are now homeless".

One such soldier, a 14-year veteran, Zawahiri claimed, served two years in Iraq, was wounded and discharged, and was later evicted from his house and now lives on a monthly pension of US$400 and "sleeps in his grandmother's car on the street".

Zawahiri's May 5 interview is, to date, al-Qaeda's most sophisticated and nuanced attempt to bedevil US domestic politics, and it highlights the long-standing fascination that al-Qaeda and many other Islamist groups have had with the position of black Americans in US society, and the access they could potentially provide thereto.

Zawahiri's focus on US domestic politics and race relations also may be benefiting from the input of a US citizen named Adam Yahiye Gadahn - aka Azzam al-Amriki - who is a senior member of al-Qaeda's media committee.

Indeed, the deftness and political timeliness of Zawahiri's May 5 statements suggests that al-Qaeda may have more than a single American advising it about the complexities of US politics and on how to try to add a measure of agitation to the US domestic political environment. Michael Scheuer @ Asia Times