Dozens of videos supporting the infamous Osama bin Laden for his anti-semitic sentiments in two-decades old ‘Letter To America’ have surfaced on TikTok. In the open letter, the terrorist behind the tragedy of September 11, criticizes the government of the United States for supporting Israel. The youth, particularly from America, is finding resonance with bin Laden’s statements amid the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict.
How did Osama bin Laden’s Letter To America begin trending on TikTok?
As the tension on the borders of Israel and Palestine keeps growing, the youth has begun to recirculate bin Laden’s letter on TikTok. The users are urging their followers to read the letter in the wider context of criticism of Americans for supporting Israel.
Over the past 24 hours, thousands of TikToks (at least) have been posted where people share how they just read Bin Laden’s infamous "Letter to America," in which he explained why he attacked the United States.
The TikToks are from people of all ages, races, ethnicities, and… pic.twitter.com/EwjiGtFEE3
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 16, 2023
The letter was originally published in 2002 as an attempt to justify the killing of American citizens. Following its recirculation on the short-form video app, the topic has managed to garner over 14 million views. In opposition to this trend, TikTok has begun banning these videos for ‘supporting a form of terrorism,’ while claiming that they are sparse and not trending.
It is difficult to precisely measure how many people are supporting the letter and how many are criticizing it due to the app’s algorithm. However, these videos have reached and evoked discussions on other platforms including YouTube, Instagram, and X (former Twitter).
Why is GenZ resonating with bin Laden’s sentiments?
As TikTok’s major users are young Americans, under the age of 30, it is inevitable to discuss the age factor in this trend. Many of the supporters or promoters of the letter were born after the September 11 attacks or they were too young to witness it.
i see many ppl are having an awakening rn which is awesome, i just want y’all to keep in mind that anything that resonated from the Letter to America has been said much better by Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Nelson Mandela and countless others so….yea lmfao https://t.co/4DFeP86gsN
— BADBASEMENT (@BADBASEMENT) November 16, 2023
The letter is written by Osama bin Laden, the former leader of al Qaeda, who was killed in a US special forces raid in 2011, in the context of reasoning his attack on Twin Towers. It claims that the nineteen men’s hijacking of a commercial airline and intentionally crashing it, resulting in the death of nearly 3000 people, was a result of the USA’s support of Israel.
However, in recent times when the horrifying details of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war are being published every day, people have started to reform the letter’s context as a revolutionary text. One of the videos on the platform claimed that the writing has changed their perspective of everything they have been taught about American history.
if you’re looking to unlearn the lies of the us and uk governments then i’d definitely recommend reading tariq ali’s books instead of relying on osama bin laden’s letter to america 😭 these are a few of my favourites pic.twitter.com/pePxtkkFk4
— suri (@suricidal) November 16, 2023
To redirect this trend, many of the users on all of the social media platform has begun to note that is difficult to separate the letter from its original context and asked netizens to read the works of other writers who have written about the same topic without the terrorist undertones.
The criticism of the trend
The recent resurfacing of Osama bin Laden’s ‘Letter To America’ has garnered criticism from the White House, whose spokesperson has slammed the trend calling it an insult to the victims and survivors of the 9/11 attacks.
.@WhiteHouse statement: "No one should ever insult the 2,977 American families still mourning loved ones by associating themselves with the vile words of Osama bin Laden" https://t.co/B8YxQ26n7J
— Andrew Bates (@AndrewJBates46) November 16, 2023
The deputy press secretary Andrew Bates has further emphasized that this trend is particularly harmful right now when the anti-semitic violence is rising in the world. Subsequently, the trend has reignited the criticism of TikTok for failing to separate the two sentiments towards the letter despite being one of the major sources of news for youth (18-29 years old).
The Guardian newspaper, which first published a translated copy of the letter has removed it from their website. In their official statement, they shared that the letter is widely being shared on social media without proper context. As a result, they have decided to redirect the readers to the news piece that contextualizes the text.
Nevertheless, the letter is still available all over the internet. If you decide to read it then please keep the original context in mind. While it is okay to separate the artist with their art, the same doesn’t apply to the political and global current events.
