Just when you thought things couldn't get any more unsettling,

November 29, 2001 10:05 PM

Just when you thought things couldn't get any more unsettling, some of America's biggest radical racists glorify Al Qaeda's grit. "I wish our members had half as much testicular fortitude," says Billy Roper, a National Alliance official. White supremacists and Islamicists like Osama bin Laden just plain agree on a lot of things--in particular, that globalism and multiculturalism are the uber-enemies, and that separatism and cultural purity are the answer.
posted by semmi (15 comments total)

I dunno. I think this is only an unsettling thought if it's one you'd never had before. Is it really any more surprising that cultural hate groups agree with one another about the "evils" of multiculturalism than it is that, say, viciously competing companies in any industry, such as automaking, might vociferously agree with one another about the "evils" of a piece of legislation requiring reduced exhaust emissions? I don't think it is.

I would go a step further to say that it would also not be surprising to see such groups pool resources for the purpose of toppling the forces that promote multiculturalism, just as competing automakers might team up to lobby legislators or to fight a law's constitutionality.

One likes to hope that their closed-minded attitudes would make such alliances far-fetched, but I think Cottle makes it pretty clear that even these loonies have started figuring out how to use PR to their advantage.
posted by Bixby23 at 11:16 PM on November 29, 2001

Black supremacists, most notably the Black Panther "party", of course said almost the same thing.
posted by dagny at 12:30 AM on November 30, 2001

All racists are stupid.
posted by owillis at 12:33 AM on November 30, 2001

What did the Black Panthers say?
posted by sudama at 4:47 AM on November 30, 2001

Bixby23: "I would go a step further to say that it would also not be surprising to see such groups pool resources for the purpose of toppling the forces that promote multiculturalism..."

If they joined together to fight multi-culture, they'd be hypocrites. But that'd be nothing new.

After Oklahoma City, our friendly neighborhood domestic terrorists should just shut the hell up. But it's a free country. Let them wallow in their own filth. So long as it's all talk. And if it's not? They'll go the way of Koresh.
posted by ZachsMind at 4:57 AM on November 30, 2001

I always suspected anti-globalists were merely closet racists. ;-P
posted by mischief at 5:19 AM on November 30, 2001

sudama: What did the Black Panthers say?

Radical Black Panther Chief Blames American Leaders for Terror Attacks. (via MeFier frednorman's weblog)
posted by Carol Anne at 6:02 AM on November 30, 2001

Prediction: sudama defends Black Panthers. Several others pile on to condemn the Black Panthers and racism in general. A volatile discussion begins on racism, cicumventing the original topic of on NA-Al Quaeda similarities.
posted by Karl at 6:13 AM on November 30, 2001

The West Wing:

The Taliban are to Muslims as the KKK are to Christianity.

I always liked that show.
posted by rich at 6:16 AM on November 30, 2001

I don't know much about the Panthers but I've never learned anything that indicated they were supremacists.

condemn the Black Panthers and racism in general

Good luck doing both at the same time.
posted by sudama at 6:54 AM on November 30, 2001

"Islamicists?"
posted by Foosnark at 10:32 AM on November 30, 2001

All racists are stupid.

Owillis, yer predujis against dem der racists.
posted by Neale at 12:51 PM on November 30, 2001

sudama: see The New Black Panther Party looks at whites and sees red.

"The nexus between [Malik Zulu] Shabazz [, the charismatic 34-year-old leader of the New Black Panthers, D.C. Division] and the New Black Panthers lies with Khallid Abdul Muhammad, the notorious anti-Semite and black supremacist. Four years ago, Muhammad started the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense in New York. Muhammad was looking around for a political group with which to affiliate, and revivifying the Panthers—arguably the most prominent black militant organization during its heyday in the late '60s and early '70s—seemed a good enough idea."
posted by Carol Anne at 2:14 PM on November 30, 2001

ALL YOUR RACISTS ARE BELONG TO USAMA!
Make your time.
posted by thirteen at 2:27 PM on November 30, 2001

Carol Anne: After reading that article, the New Black Panther Party does seem to be pretty ugly. However, it also seems to have no connection whatever with the original Black Panthers, and I assume that it was they, and not Muhammad's group, that sudama was defending.

I too would defend them. I've never been given any cause to think that they were racists, let alone black supremacists. Indeed, the article you linked to says that they "sought racial equity." Certainly they were militant, but under the circumstances they had reason to be.
posted by moss at 2:42 PM on November 30, 2001