“3,000 people died”… American youth passionate about ‘Bin Laden letter’, what’s going on?

As anti-Semitic incidents are increasing around the world due to the war that began with the attack on Israel by the Palestinian armed faction Hamas, CNN reported that a letter from Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, who caused the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, is rapidly spreading again on social media. It was reported on the 16th (local time).

According to CNN, this week, dozens of young Americans expressed sympathy on the video sharing social media TikTok for a letter that bin Laden wrote about 20 years ago criticizing the U.S. government’s support for Israel.

This letter, titled ‘Letter to America’, was released in 2002, a year after the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed 3,000 people in Washington DC and New York.

At the time, bin Laden argued in a letter that the September 11 attacks were justified, saying that the oppression in the Palestinian territories should be avenged by targeting Americans and Jews.

Bin Laden also criticized the creation and continuation of Israel as a great crime, saying that Jews control the United States.

Bin Laden’s letter containing this content has been revived among Palestinian supporters.

CNN reported that as of the 16th of this week, the number of views on the video related to Bin Laden’s letter on TikTok exceeded 14 million.

An influencer in New York, USA, said that Bin Laden’s letter changed his perspective on life and encouraged others to read it. CNN was concerned that the response was so enthusiastic that it received 1.6 million views.

According to the Washington Post, a TikTok video posted on X by a journalist named Yashar Ali was viewed more than 28 million times.

In another video with over 100,000 views, one TikTok user criticized the U.S. government regarding bin Laden’s letter, saying, “If we call Osama bin Laden a terrorist, so does the U.S. government.”

Accordingly, some pointed out that many young people born after the September 11 attacks agreed with the contents of the letter without knowing exactly about Bin Laden’s brutality.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates criticized Bin Laden’s letter in a CNN interview, saying, “There is absolutely no justification for the spread of hateful, harmful and anti-Semitic lies.”

Meanwhile, the number of people who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks caused by bin Laden is close to 3,000. Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan in 2011.