Speaking of racism, as we were in the previous post, today a writer for Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept website called Daily Beast columnist Maajid Nawaz … a “talking monkey.”

Nice shot of Sam Harris with his well-coiffed talking monkey: pic.twitter.com/O13U69dsIl

— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) September 15, 2015

Some of Hussain’s readers reacted with surprise and outrage…

@BinaShah @MazMHussain Ouch? If an American man, a Republican especially, called a brown skinned man a monkey would you just say “ouch”?

— Charmian Neary (@CharmianAgain) September 15, 2015

And at that point, Hussain doubled down and used an even more offensive racial slur:

@BinaShah @MaajidNawaz His pitiful whining aside accurately calling him a “monkey”, as in a porch monkey, is not a slur.

— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) September 15, 2015

Then he tripled down:

To be clear I will never hesitate to identify someone clearly enriching themselves through native informing as a porch monkey.

— Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain) September 15, 2015

Nawaz’s response:

I was angry like you once. May spite, anger and racism be purged from your heart. Amen. https://t.co/YgXeuZTkXB

— maajid nawaz (@MaajidNawaz) September 15, 2015

If Hussain worked for any other publication, this could very well get him fired. But the Greenwald crew is well-known for their double standards and hypocritical viciousness, so it’s very unlikely Hussain will even be reprimanded for using a noxious racial slur to smear one of his political enemies.

(Note that I have real differences with Sam Harris and Quilliam — the group Nawaz is affiliated with — and their approach to Islam, but that’s beside the point here. This kind of rhetoric has no place in any discussion, and especially not from a publication that purports to be anti-racist.)