25 Years After 9/11, Some Gen Z Americans Celebrate Osama bin Laden for His Violent, Jew-Hating ‘Letter to America’

It’s a difficult thing for anyone to be surprised at the depths of depravity and deplorability you can find on social media if you look. This is triply true if you’re on TikTok, which I tend to avoid for the same reason I avoid rat poison or sticking forks in electrical sockets.

However, give the denizens of the platform some perverse credit: On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, reports say that one of the trends on the short-form video app was Gen Z praising Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” with one going as far as to call it “life changing” reading.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been so surprising.

A quarter of a century ago, when almost 3,000 innocent people were killed by terrorists who hijacked four airliners and managed to fly three into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we constantly assured ourselves that this happened because Osama bin Laden and his ilk “hated us for our freedom.”

In a way, this was somewhat accurate, but not fully explicatory.

In a November 2002 missive, bin Laden himself tried to tell us why he hated us: He hated Jews, he hated America because America helped the Jewish nation of Israel, he hated any nation that wasn’t under Sharia law, he hated anyone who wasn’t Islamic, and if you were in one of the nations he hated, or at least did not like, you were fair game to be killed.

I suppose at a certain level, he did hate us for our freedom, although not how you’d expect: “We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honor, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling’s, and trading with interest,” he wrote.

He was angry that we refused to sign the restrictive Kyoto climate change agreement, and he called “AIDS… a Satanic American Invention,” possibly because of our licentiousness or possibly because the man was crazy.

Most of the start of the letter, however, was given over to how he hated Jews and how he killed Americans because he loved Palestine.

That’s why, according to The National Desk, #lettertoamerica was trending on TikTok on Thursday, with videos that contained posts in support of it gaining 11.9 million views.

“Now don’t jump me, I know 9/11 can be quite triggering but let’s ask the question that Osama bin Laden asked America,” one user said. “I’m not here to defend anybody, but I am here to say we gotta do some f***ing algebra here. If we’re going to call Osama bin Laden a terrorist, so is the American government.”

“Everything we learned about the Middle East, 9/11 and ‘terrorism’ was a lie,” wrote another.

“If you haven’t, you have to go read Osama’s letter to America,” another said.

“Then you’ll see what this has to do with us. They have lied to us more than enough. Reading that was honestly life changing. My bond with this conflict is unshakable.”

If you are a sane person, then, by all means, do read it. It shows just how deeply bin Laden’s grievances were connected to the fact that Israel continued to exist.

Palestine, which has sunk under military occupation for more than 80 years. The British handed over Palestine, with your help and your support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion, destruction and devastation. The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.

It brings us both laughter and tears to see that you have not yet tired of repeating your fabricated lies that the Jews have a historical right to Palestine, as it was promised to them in the Torah. Anyone who disputes with them on this alleged fact is accused of anti-semitism. This is one of the most fallacious, widely-circulated fabrications in history. The people of Palestine are pure Arabs and original Semites. It is the Muslims who are the inheritors of Moses (peace be upon him) and the inheritors of the real Torah that has not been changed. Muslims believe in all of the Prophets, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all.

If the followers of Moses have been promised a right to Palestine in the Torah, then the Muslims are the most worthy nation of this. When the Muslims conquered Palestine and drove out the Romans, Palestine and Jerusalem returned to Islam, the religion of all the Prophets peace be upon them. Therefore, the call to a historical right to Palestine cannot be raised against the Islamic Ummah that believes in all the Prophets of Allah (peace and blessings be upon them) – and we make no distinction between them.

The blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged. You must know that the Palestinians do not cry alone; their women are not widowed alone; their sons are not orphaned alone.

This is right at the beginning of the lengthy letter, mind you — the first thing that bin Laden felt the need to talk about.

It’s the ravings of a madman, the idea that Arabs are the “original Semites” and the real inheritors of all the holy books “that [have] not been changed” — part of an idea that these books have been altered to the detriment of Islam’s claim to them.

And then, in that final point, bin Laden says “the blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged” — equally revenged, of course, on innocent Westerners, specifically innocent Americans.

And innocent Westerners, presumably of the Gen Z variety, read this and say: You know, the guy’s got a point.

Not that they would volunteer to be that innocent blood, of course; they hide behind the security provided by the very government they blast on social media. It is an easy thing to pet a dead wolf and curse the game warden who shot him. When that wolf is prowling your backyard and intends to eat you, that feeling assumedly changes.

Sadly, younger Americans who don’t remember what bin Laden did are more willing to pet the dead wolf than ever before.

In 2023, a poll found that one in five Gen Zers had a positive impression of bin Laden, with 17 percent viewing his reputation as “mixed.”

NEW: 🇺🇸 Poll of 1,000 U.S. adults in @dailymail, 12/15-12/20

How would you describe your view of Osama Bin Laden? All adults:

Positive: 8%
Mixed: 6%
Negative: 81%

18-29 year olds:

Positive: 20%
Mixed: 17%
Negative: 52%https://t.co/mYRoJ1Z4jR
Story: https://t.co/wGp1X1Wj9G

— JL Partners (@JLPartnersPolls) December 27, 2023

And on TikTok, this had already trended, with plenty of younger Americans making videos praising the dead terrorist leader — right after the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks on Israel by Hamas.

So, sick? Yes. Surprising? Hardly.

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