The son of a man who died in the 9/11 attacks said it is 'hard to watch' TikTok users fawning over Osama Bin Laden's letter to America as he called for Americans to be 'reeducated.'
Brett Eagleson was just 15 when his father, Bruce Eagleson, perished inside the World Trade Center. He has since dedicated his life to campaigning for justice in the wake of the terror attacks.
The 37-year-old has become the latest high-profile figure to condemn online users re-sharing the Al Qaeda leader's letter, which he used to justify the September 11 attack.
In the letter, which was first published in 2002, bin Laden says one of the reasons 9/11 was carried out was because of the U.S.'s support for Israel - as he spewed anti-American, anti-Semitic and homophobic viewpoints.
The document has resurfaced in recent days in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7, with many TikTokers drawing parallels between bin Laden's justification and those of Hamas.
Brett Eagleson, whose father Bruce died in the 9/11 terror attacks, has slammed TikTokers re-sharing Osama bin Laden's 'Letter to America
The letter has resurfaced in recent days with TikTok users drawing parallels between bin Laden's justification for the 9/11 attacks and those carried out by Hamas on October 7
'It’s hard to watch and hard to believe these TikTokers can be taken seriously,' Eagelson said.
'Perhaps what they don’t realize is that the radical terrorists they are giving credibility to wouldn’t hesitate a second to take them hostage or kill them or their families based solely on their skin color, religion, nationality or gender preference. We can never stand for that.'
A TikToker named Lynette Adkins appears to be the one who set off the Gen-Z led trend, posting a video on November 14 telling followers, 'I need everyone to stop what they're doing right now and go read - it's literally two pages - go read "A letter to America."'
Since then it has gained traction on the online community, with many young people praising the letter as insightful.
But Eagleson rejected this view and called for greater education on the circumstances around the devastating 2001 attack, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
'It’s time to reeducate Americans what happened to us on 9/11, the role the Saudi government played in the attacks, and that we must hold those accountable so such an attack can never happen again on our soil,' he added.
'We need to send a strong message that terrorism can never be normalized, justified or white washed.'
His comments come after the White House condemned those re-posting the letter.
'There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil, and anti-Semitic lies that the leader of al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history – highlighting them as his direct motivation for murdering 2,977 innocent Americans,' White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
September 11th victim Bruce Eagleson, with his children Kyle, Tim and Brett at a wedding in 1993
The trend appears to have started with TikToker Lynette Adkins who posted a video on November 14 telling her followers to read the Al Qaeda leader's manifesto
Eagleson's condemnation came after similar comments by the White House which said: 'There is never a justification for spreading the repugnant, evil, and anti-Semitic lies that the leader of al Qaeda issued just after committing the worst terrorist attack in American history'
Eagleson called for Americans to be 'reeducated' on the context of the 9/11 attack
'And no one should ever insult the 2,977 American families still mourning loved ones by associating themselves with the vile words of Osama bin Laden.'
Megyn Kelly also slammed the parents of young people who recently 'discovered' the letter, saying they had failed to educate their children.
'To the parents of all of these losers suddenly persuaded by the deranged musings of the man who murdered 3k American innocents: you failed,' she wrote on X.
'You were likely boozing, marching for some L-wing cause and/or simply ignoring your kids.
'You failed to teach wrong from right, a proper moral code, a love of country and perspective on America's role in the world.'
TikTok has since said it is working to scrub the videos from its platform, which had upwards of 14 million views.
The social media site said it would remove the any post that 'violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism.'
But it claimed the number of videos on TikTok is 'small' and 'reports of it trending [on the] platform is inaccurate.'