CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Al-Qaeda’s No 2 branded Barack Obama with a demeaning racial term for a black American who does the bidding of whites, in a new Web message yesterday intended to dent the president-elect’s popularity among Arabs and Muslims and show he will not change US policy.

Ayman al-Zawahri’s speech was al-Qaeda’s first reaction to Obama’s election victory – and it suggested the terror network is worried the new American leader could undermine its rallying cry that the United States is an enemy oppressor.

Obama has been welcomed by many in the Middle East who hope he will end what they see as American aggression against Muslims and Arabs under President George W Bush.

Al-Zawahri dug into American racial history to make a case to the region that although Obama is black, he will be no more sympathetic than white leaders to what the al-Qaeda leader called “the oppressed” of the world.

He said Obama was the “direct opposite of honourable black Americans” like Malcolm X, the 1960s Muslim African-American rights leader, who is known among some in the Arab world and seen as a symbol of anti-imperialism.

Al-Zawahri also called Obama – along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice – “house negroes”.

The video included old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters’ house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticise black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites and discrimination.

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri used the phrase “abeed al-beit”, which literally translates as “house slaves”. But in the video message, posted on Islamic militant Web sites yesterday, al-Qaeda supplied English subtitles of the speech that translated the phrase as “house negroes”.

The 11-minute 23-second video featured an audio message by al-Zawahri, played over a still image of the al-Qaida No 2.

Al-Zawahri addressed “all the world’s weak and oppressed”, and warned them: “America has put on a new face, but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always.”

He accused Obama of turning his back on his heritage to gain power.

“You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America,” he said.

“It appears that you continue to be captive to the same criminal American mentality towards the world and towards the Muslims,” he said.

Jeremy Binnie, an analyst with Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, said al-Zawahri’s message suggests al-Qaeda leaders are worried “that Obama could be effective in rebuilding America’s image”.

Bruce Hoffman, a terror expert at Georgetown University, said that al-Zawahri, who is Osama bin Laden’s top deputy, aimed specifically to keep the Islamic militant base energised.

The authenticity of the message could not be independently confirmed, but the voice resembled that of al-Zawahri in past videos, and it bore the logo of al-Qaida’s media arm, Al-Sahab.