Young Americans are sympathizing with terrorists — not only the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, but now also the al-Qaeda terrorists who attacked our own soil in 2001. In a sick trend, a handful of users on the video-sharing platform TikTok, a subsidiary of Beijing-based ByteDance, praised al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s anti-American writings as “eye-opening” and “right.”
On Wednesday, the Guardian took down bin Laden’s 2002 “letter to the American people” — a document outlining why Islamic terrorists attacked the U.S. on 9/11, killing roughly 3,000 people — after the document went viral on TikTok. The CCP-linked app has become the fourth most popular platform in the United States and is particularly popular among young people.
“Reading this letter,” one user said, “it becomes apparent to me that the actions of 9/11 and those acts committed against the USA and its people were all just the buildup of our government failing other nations.”
“This letter was insanely eye-opening,” the TikToker said.
Another user posted a video of reading the letter with the caption, “he was right.”
The letter went viral 21 years after it was written, as turmoil in the Middle East threatens to spark more acts of terrorism around the world. Last month, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip after Palestinian terrorists with Hamas killed some 1,200 civilians in an Oct. 7 surprise attack.
In Bin Laden’s 2002 letter to the American people, the since-deceased al-Qaeda chief attempted to justify the 9/11 attacks as retribution because “you attacked us” and “you attacked us in Palestine.”
“Palestine, which has sunk under military occupation for more than 80 years. The British handed over Palestine, with your help and your support, to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion, destruction and devastation,” bin Laden claimed in the letter.
TikTok is now promoting anti-Israel and anti-America propaganda to young people, who are increasingly radicalized by far-left movements. It’s disturbing to see activists show solidarity with the terrorist group Hamas and with the perpetrators of 9/11, but it’s unfortunately not surprising: their anti-American sentiment is the natural consequence of academics indoctrinating students for years with anti-colonial themes that vilify Western progress. College campuses have served as breeding grounds of extremist activism for decades, radicalizing students before launching them into legacy newsrooms and corporate boardrooms.
The spread of popular hashtags on the Chinese-owned platform is overwhelmingly slanted toward pro-Palestinian content in opposition to longstanding U.S. support for Israel. The hashtag “#standwithisrael” has received 464 million overall views, according to the company’s own public analytics. On the other hand, the hashtag “#standwithpalestine” has received more than 4 billion.
The nationwide protests have repeatedly revealed the blatantly antisemitic motivations of many participants.
Reports of antisemitic attacks in the United States, meanwhile, are rising. In New York City, home to the largest Jewish population in America, the police department reported a 164 percent spike in anti-Jewish crime.
On Wednesday, anti-Israel rioters terrorized the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), leaving six police officers injured.
The evening demonstrations also shut down House offices on Capitol Hill, with one Democrat lawmaker telling Axios the riot “scared me more than January 6.”