A nearly two-decade-old letter from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden briefly goes viral. It has now been deleted.
London – A document of hate as a viral trend: A British newspaper has now pulled the emergency brake. Where previously the “Letter to America” from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who was killed on May 2, 2011, could be read, it now reads: “A document was previously displayed on this page, which translated the full text of Osama bin Laden Laden’s ‘Letter to the American People’, reported on Sunday, November 24, 2002 Observer was reported.” The crucial sentence: “The document, which was published here on the same day, was removed on November 15, 2023.”
The British newspaper The Guardian responded to a new trend on the social media platform TikTok. Users had started re-circulating the nearly two-decade-old letter – with some of them supporting views of the slain terrorist. Many people did not agree with all of the statements.
Bin Laden had justified the attacks on the World Trade Center by claiming that the attack was in retaliation for United States policies during the Cold War era. The USA interfered in the Middle East, Israel occupied Palestinian land for decades and oppressed the Palestinian people. The statements gained traction on TikTok, also in view of the War in Israelshockingly broad agreement.
Bin Laden’s terror pamphlet goes viral
“I want everyone to stop what they’re doing and read, it’s literally two pages, ‘A Letter to America,'” TikTok user Lynette Adkins said in a video she posted on Tuesday (April 14). November) published on the platform. She referenced the title bin Laden often gave the text – and appeared to openly call for simple answers in a complex time. “Come back and tell me what you think. Because I feel like I’m going through an existential crisis right now, and a lot of people feel that way. So I just need someone who feels that too.”
Commentators were similarly impressed by the document. “I just read it […] My eyes were opened,” wrote one. The clip itself went viral, and other, often young, TikTokers also shared the terror pamphlet in approval and encouraged their followers to read it.
Bin Laden called founding of Israel “greatest crime”
Bin Laden wrote the message a year after September 11, 2001. According to Bin Laden, he wanted to answer two questions that had preoccupied the American media since that terrible day: “Why are we fighting you?” and “What are we calling for you, and what do we want from you?” In the openly anti-Semitic first paragraph, the terrorist denounced the USA for supporting the establishment and maintenance of the Jewish state in the Palestinian territories.
Some of bin Laden’s judgments would not have been out of place in mainstream US politics at the time, the US magazine concluded Rolling Stones. For example, the head of the terrorist group Al-Qaeda took the USA to task for not signing the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions. However, one should not ignore the fact that the letter is riddled with anti-Semitic language and hate speech.
Bin Laden letter deleted: “Shared on social media without original context”
The al-Qaeda leader repeatedly wrote that the U.S. is “run by Jews” who “control your politics, your media and your economy.” Elsewhere, he condemned homosexuality and fornication as “immoral” and accused the country of spreading AIDS, which he described as a “Satanic American invention,” echoing a conspiracy theory. The United States must renounce its culture of “hypocrisy” and become an Islamic nation, demanded Bin Laden.
On Wednesday (November 15th), the text was apparently the newspaper’s most searched article for a while due to the great interest on social media. A spokesman for the Guardian told the US news website The Daily Beast via email that the letter had been circulated without the “original context.” “The transcript that was posted on our website 20 years ago is now being shared on social media without the original context,” the spokesperson said, explaining the deletion. (tpn)
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