The Israel-Hamas war has brought back from the dead the voice of the world’s most infamous terrorist — Osama Bin Laden.
Twenty-one years after it was first published, Tik-Tokers have discovered the ‘Letter to the American people’ and, shockingly, seem to agree with the long-dead, dreaded terrorist.
With thousands of TikTok users creating and sharing their clips in a single day, the Osama letter videos have now gone viral across all social media platforms.
People called it “TikTok PsyOp tsunami” and expressed how aghast they were that Gen Z was “praising a manifesto” that justified killing of civilians.
The letter by the al-Qaida chief, Osama bin Laden, was written after the 2001 attacks, the worst terror attack on US soil. It tries to justify the monsterous 9/11 attacks and links them, among other things, to “…support to the oppressive Israelis in their occupation of our Palestine”.
That seems to be the reason why Osama’s letter resurfaced and became viral.
Israel is at war with Hamas after its terrorists on October 7 butchered 1,400 Israeli citizens and kidnapped over 200 to Gaza.
Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, and its counter-attacks have left over 11,000 dead, according to Gaza health officials. The relentless pounding has reduced north Gaza into rubble and the Israel Defense Forces have now surrounded and raided Al Shifa hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza. According to Israel, Hamas uses the facilities and tunnels below Al Shifa as its main command-and-control centre.
Protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza have intensified after the pummelling of Gaza and the deaths of thousands, including children.
The TikTok videos of Osama bin Laden’s letter emerged and went viral against this backdrop.
In another reference to statehood for Palestine, Osama says in the letter: “Palestine has been under occupation for decades, and none of your presidents talked about it until after September 11…”
Osama concludes his ‘letter to the American people’, saying “Palestine shall not be seen captive for we will try to break its shackles” and warns that the United States would “pay for its arrogance with the blood of Christians”.
In a daring, night-time raid on a building in Pakistan’s Abbottabad in May 2011, a SEAL team of the US army killed Osama bin Laden.
GUARDIAN PULLS DOWN OSAMA LETTER
The Guardian newspaper had the Osama bin Laden letter on its website since 2002 but pulled it down after the videos went viral.
That ended up being counter-productive. The Guardian’s pulling down the letter from its website was said to have fuelled more interest in Osama’s letter and the videos.
The Guardian message said: “This page previously displayed a document containing, in translation, the full text of Osama bin Laden’s “letter to the American people”, as reported in the Observer on Sunday 24 November 2002.”
The Guardian said that the document, which was published on its website on the same day, was removed on 15 November 2023. It didn’t furnish any reason for the removal of the document.
The Guardian’s move came right after the videos started going viral. And after The Guardian removed the document from its website, copies of the letter were being shared on social media platforms.
“The Guardian had a copy of ‘Letter to America’ posted, but once these TikToks went viral, the Guardian took it down, which has only led to more interest in the letter and conspiracies from TikTokers who say this is part of the media and the powers that control it trying to silence the truth,” American journalist Yashar Ali posted on X.
“Many of them — and I have watched a lot — say it has made them reevaluate their perspective on how what is often labeled as terrorism can be a legitimate form of resistance to a hostile power,” Yashar Ali wrote.
He said these videos weren’t limited to TikTok alone and had now been posted on various social media platforms.
HOW THE OSAMA LETTER SURFACED AND WENT VIRAL
According to The Rolling Stones website, TikTok user Lynette Adkins said in a video posted on Tuesday, “I need everyone to stop what they’re doing right now and go read — it’s literally two pages — go read ‘A Letter to America’ (the text by Osama).”
She went on to say, “Come back here and let me know what you think. Because I feel like I’m going through like an existential crisis right now, and a lot of people are. So I just need someone else to be feeling this too.”
The letter went viral and several TikTokers called it “insanely eye-opening” and “mind-blowing” and urged their followers to read the letter.
“..I didn’t even know this letter existed. It’s wild and everyone should read itâ€æthis has left me disillusioned..I feel a little bit confused, like I have entered another timeline,” said a TikToker.
Revealing the Israel-Hamas war link to the letter going viral, another user said: “If you are Muslim and are living in the USA since 9/11 you know more than the typical citizen. Now it’s coming to light because of Palestine.”
Surprise and bewilderment were aplenty in the voices of the Gen Z population who didn’t know the letter existed in the first place and then due to its content.
“I will never look at life the same, I will never look at this country (USA) the same. If you have read it, let me know if you are going through an existential crisis. Because in the last 20 minutes, my entire viewpoint of the entire life I have believed and lived has changed,” remarked another user.
Another user said, “It is literally the craziest thing I have read in a while. While I can’t say that I am that surprised, I am pretty shocked.”
Not only were Gen Z shocked, their apparent support for the ideas of Osama bin Laden left many shocked too.
An user on X posted one of the videos and remarked, “The moment you become so ‘progressive’ that you starts sympathizing with Osama Bin Laden”.
Another user demanded an investigation into the TikTok trend, alleging that some of the wording the videos were near identical. “It’s possible that this is organic, but it’s equally possible that it began as a deliberate trend manipulation campaign,” the X user wrote.