The internet is a place where anyone can spread ideas. Some of the ideas spread online are great and can contribute to society in amazing ways. Other ideas are awful and really leave me worried for the state of people chronically online.
Some users of TikTok have been sharing Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” written in 2002. The TikTok users have been expressing sympathy for bin Laden in his justification for his attacks on the World Trade Center. The TikTok videos were not popular until journalist Yashar Ali exposed a compilation on X (formerly Twitter).
According to The Washington Post, bin Laden’s letter states the attacks were justified because of the United States’ support of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories among other things he claimed to be Western “immorality and debauchery.”
Online extremism has gone so far that people are expressing sympathy for bin Laden. This fact has left me disgusted and appalled.
According to NBC, TikTok users started sharing a link to The Guardian’s transcript of the letter. The users would share pieces of the letter out of context while encouraging others to read through it. This led to The Guardian taking down the letter on Nov. 15 and TikTok removing the hashtag #lettertoamerica from its search function.
The users expressing sympathy have done so because they feel the letter helped them re-evaluate their beliefs surrounding the U.S. intervention in the Middle East. While I am against the U.S. intervention in the Middle East, I would never sympathize with a monster such as bin Laden. It is true that the American and Israeli governments have committed inexcusable atrocities. This is not a reason to kill innocent people who likely are not aware of what their government is doing.
The people expressing sympathy are typically in the younger generation and on the left-wing of the political spectrum. I also fit into both of these categories, but having sympathy for the innocent people killed in the Middle East does not mean I have sympathy for terrorists. Al Qaeda and Hamas are pure evil religious extremists. Religious extremism should be the antithesis of what the left-wing stands for.
I do not think those sympathizing with bin Laden are evil people, instead I take Hanlon’s razor to the issue. They are not coming from a place of malice, but one of ignorance. The majority sympathizing with him still say his attacks on the World Trade Center were wrong even if they make excuses for it.
Some believe what they were told of bin Laden was American propaganda to justify our invasion in the Middle East. This is just nonsense that a conspiracy theorist would say. I can admire skepticism of the American government, but there is a difference between skepticism and historical revisionism. This dubious reasoning is coming from a place of being chronically online, ironically listening to propaganda itself instead of going into the actual reasoning behind the fanatics.
Any reasonable person would condemn the fundamentalist religious extremism if they looked at what the venomous preachers were spewing from the pulpit. Most people on the left-wing rightfully condemn Christian nationalism, but some do not have the same condemnation of radical Islam being governed by Sharia and the installation of a Caliphate.
According to The Washington Post, another reason bin Laden gave for his attacks on the World Trade Center was his claim that the Western way of life is sinful. What bin Laden claimed to be immoral included “acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling and trading with interest.”
No one in their right mind would think any of these things would be worth killing somebody over. Osama bin Laden was not sympathetic; he was a privileged idiot who wanted to push his religion on people through violence. He was pure evil and it is a good thing he is dead so he cannot cause any more harm.
I plead with my fellow left-wingers, please research who you may think is sympathetic. We should be fighting against religious extremism, not sympathizing with the stupid lunatics perpetuating it. The American and Israeli governments committing barbaric acts of savagery does not make it right for religious extremists to impose their will on everyday people.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
