The late jihadist’s justifications for assaults on America have drawn reward on social media amid the Israel-Hamas warfare
Greater than 20 years after the assaults that ignited the US ‘Warfare on Terror,’ Osama Bin Laden’s anti-Jewish letter justifying terrorism in opposition to People has resonated on social media and captured the imaginations of pro-Palestinian activists amid the Israel-Hamas warfare.
Movies with the hashtag “LettertoAmerica” have been seen greater than 13.5 million occasions on TikTok, apparently starting with a submit on Tuesday by a consumer named Lynette Adkins. “I want everybody to cease what they’re doing proper now and go learn – it’s actually two pages – go learn ‘A Letter to America,’” she mentioned. “And please come again right here and simply let me know what you suppose as a result of I really feel like I’m going by means of, like, an existential disaster proper now, and lots of people are, so I simply want another person to be feeling this, too.”
Different customers reacted equally to the lately rediscovered letter, which is over 20 years previous. One other TikTok consumer who claimed to be struggling an “existential disaster” mentioned of the letter, “I’ll by no means take a look at life the identical; I’ll by no means take a look at this nation the identical.”
For his half, US Senator Marco Rubio instructed in a submit on X (previously Twitter) that the reactions present terrorist sympathies: “They now perceive terrorism is a reputable technique of resistance in opposition to ‘oppression,’ and America deserved to be attacked on 9/11.”
Now trending on social media (particularly TikTok) folks saying that after studying Bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” they now perceive terrorism is a reputable technique of resistance in opposition to “oppression” and America deserved to be attacked of 9/11Video Credit score: @yasharpic.twitter.com/O5bemdTDzw
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 16, 2023
Bin Laden, who addressed the 2002 letter “to the American folks,” condemned the US for supporting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and argued that Jews managed American insurance policies, capital, and media. “The creation of Israel is a criminal offense which should be erased,” he wrote. “Each individual whose fingers have grow to be polluted within the contribution towards this crime should pay its worth – and pay for it closely.”
The Al-Qaeda founder went on to name for the blood of Palestinians to be avenged. “It’s commanded by our faith and mind that the oppressed have a proper to return the aggression,” Bin Laden mentioned. “Don’t await something from us however jihad, resistance, and revenge. Is it in any method rational to count on that, after America has attacked us for greater than half a century, we’ll then go away her to reside in safety and peace?”
The UK’s Guardian newspaper had posted a replica of the letter since an English translation was first printed in November 2002. The outlet took down the doc on Wednesday. A spokesman for The Guardian instructed Fox Information that the paper had eliminated the letter as a result of it was being extensively shared on social media “with out the total context.” The web page now hyperlinks to an article that gives context.
Adkins, the social media consumer who posted the letter on Tuesday, features a hyperlink on her TikTok web page to a fundraising website for “Palestinian rights.” The positioning requires a ceasefire in West Jerusalem’s warfare with Hamas, saying the Palestinians in Gaza are “residing by means of genocide as Israel bombs, starves, and displaces them.”
