Bin Laden letter goes viral on TikTok

Many TikTok users embraced the message of  Osama Bin Laden’s letter with one poster declaring, ‘everything we learned about the Middle East, 9/11 and terrorism was a lie.’

A letter from the Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden written 21 years ago was discovered and circulated on TikTok recently, with 900,000 views on Thursday before the platform took it down.

The letter went viral following the outbreak of the current Israel-Hamas conflict.

With only about half of Americans under the age of 29 saying that Hamas is a terrorist group, many young people now sympathize with the late terrorist leader’s sentiments, even those that are virulently antisemitic.

In the letter, Bin Laden lays the blame for the 9/11 attacks squarely at the feet of Israel. He wrote, “Your former president warned you previously about the devastating Jewish control of capital [wealth] and about a day that would come when it would enslave you.”

Bin Laden continued, “You continue to support the oppressive Israelis in their occupation of our Palestine in response to pressures on your administration by a Jewish lobby backed by enormous financial capabilities.”

“You have to implement a roadmap that returns the Palestine land [sic] to us, all of it, from the sea to the river; it is an Islamic land not subject to being traded or granted to any party.”

“Palestine shall not be seen captive for we will try to break its shackles. The United States shall pay for its arrogance with the blood of Christians and their funds. “

Many TikTokers were receptive to the late terror leader’s letter, with one young user declaring, “Everything we ever learned about the Middle East, 9/11, and terrorism was a lie.”

On X, TikTok posted a statement on Thursday that the letter violates the companies rules for posting terrorist content, announced it was removing the letter and investigating how it got onto the platform.