Osama bin Laden, the Islamist jihadist who organized the September 11 attacks on Americans more than 20 years ago, returned to the headlines this week after his “Message to America” message attracted attention on social media.
But those promoting it appear to be covering up the conspiracy theories and deranged threats that terrorism peddles in its vitriolic rhetoric.
This two-decade-old piece of jihadist propaganda was scrubbed from The Guardian’s website earlier this week due to increased interest – “without full context” – after some TikTok influencers began talking about it. Some users said it changed their worldviews. Others went so far as to say that they realized that bin Laden “was right.”
Bin Laden, in part, blamed America for supporting “Israeli oppression of the Palestinians” and “occupation” in the Holy Land.
Republican Party lawmakers renew their calls to ban TikTok after Osama bin Laden’s message to America spread
After the trend gained some traction on TikTok, with 274 videos posted under the hashtag from Tuesday to Wednesday, a batch of videos were uploaded again on X and gained more than 35 million views, surpassing the 1.85 million views originally gained on TikTok.
FILE – In this 1998 file photo, Ayman al-Zawahiri, left, holds a news conference with Osama bin Laden in Khost, Afghanistan and was provided on Friday, March 19, 2004. A person familiar with the developments said on Sunday, May 1, 2011, that bin Laden is dead and the U.S. Own the body. (AP Photo/Mazhar Ali Khan) (AP1998)
TikTok said the number of videos promoting the content is small and “reports of its spread on our platform are inaccurate.” The company said it is proactively and aggressively removing the content and investigating how it reached the platform.
But the message, unsurprisingly for something penned by a terrorist mastermind, is filled with extremist rhetoric, threats of violence, anti-Semitism and other language that typically goes against left-leaning online communities.
In his impassioned speech, Bin Laden justifies this Al-Qaeda attacks Against the United States because you “attacked us” and “attacked us in Palestine.”
He threatened, saying: “The blood flowing from Palestine must be avenged,” before accusing the United States of occupying “our country” and starving Muslims.
The rhetorical question “What do we want from you?” He replied: “The first thing we call you to is Islam,” before criticizing America because it is not an Islamic religious state.
“You are the nation that does not rule by God’s law in its constitution and laws. You choose to invent your own laws as you wish and want. You separate religion from your policies, which contradicts the pure nature that affirms the absolute authority of the state. Your Lord and Creator.”
He says: “It is the religion of jihad for the sake of God so that the word of God and His religion are the highest.”
It also calls for an end to “immortality and immorality.”
“We call on you… to reject immoral acts such as adultery, sodomy, intoxication, and gambling.” [sic]And trading with interest.”
The now-deceased terrorist dives into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, claiming that “the Jews” control “your politics, the media and the economy.”
Osama bin Laden’s famous message to America after September 11, which was promoted by TikTok influencers, has become widespread.
“As a result, in all its various forms and manifestations, the Jews controlled your economy, through which they then controlled your media, and now control all aspects of your life, making you their slaves and achieving their goals.” “Aimed at your expense,” he says.
Shortly after, he accused the United States of trafficking in “sex in all its forms” before exploiting fringe conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS: “Go ahead and brag to the nations of humanity that you brought them AIDS as a satanic American invention.”
He issues a comprehensive list of demands regarding global politics and limiting the American footprint abroad, before threatening the United States in no uncertain terms.
“If you are unable to meet all these conditions, then prepare to fight [sic] With the Islamic nation.”
Bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEAL Team 6 in May 2011.
While the online influencers urging Americans to “read” the message expressed how it would change the way they view the world, few, if any, addressed the actual content of the terrorist propaganda they were urging people to read.
Charles Cook, a senior editor at National Review, was one of many to criticize the revisionism of bin Laden’s work – saying that “one would have thought that at least… some “It had to be reflexively hateful, hypothetical, and obviously no one is purer than me on TikTok.”
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“What’s up with those thoughts someone expresses foreign – Someone who can be portrayed believably (albeit stupidly). victim “What makes exquisitely sensitive people completely ignore them?” he asked.
“In everyday American politics, the most trivial passions are routinely portrayed as part of ‘cisgender white male hegemony.’ But Osama bin Laden began to speak of the evils of homosexuality and adultery, of the merger of church and state, of ‘complete submission to his law,’” It is just ignored.
Fox News’ Jimmy Joseph contributed to this report.
