Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said foreign countries are infiltrating the minds of U.S. children in response to a poll that found significant favorable attitudes toward former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The survey from J.L. Partners/Daily Mail found highly favorable views toward the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks among the ages 18-29 demographic, with only 41% having a completely negative view. In response, Moskowitz warned that the attitudes were driven by foreign online propaganda.
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“Twenty percent of young people have a positive view of Bin Laden. While we focus on enhancing our physical borders we must also realize Foreign countries have infiltrated our kids minds through online propaganda,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
20 percent of young people have a positive view of Bin Laden. While we focus on enhancing our physical borders we must also realize Foreign countries have infiltrated our kids minds through online propaganda. https://t.co/xNKksPXSoK
— Jared Moskowitz 🟧 (@JaredEMoskowitz) December 27, 2023
The poll found bin Laden was most favorable among the young, black, and Hispanic respondents. Barely over half of respondents ages 18-29 had a completely or somewhat negative view of bin Laden, while 20% had a completely or somewhat positive view of him. Seventeen percent had a mixed view.
Among black respondents, 18% had a completely or somewhat positive view of bin Laden, along with 15% of Hispanics.
Among the demographics most hostile to bin Laden were those who were white, over 65, and Republican.
“It is hard to avoid the conclusion that there is a cancer in the American body politic: a small but sizable group of its youngest voters,” James Johnson, founder of the polling company, told the Daily Mail.
“Polling has found that 18-29-year-olds are most likely to deny the Holocaust and, in our October Daily Mail poll, we found that Gen Z Americans are more likely to sympathize with Hamas. And now we have this on Osama bin Laden, the man behind the biggest attack on American soil in its history,” he added.
The results come after a controversy in which young TikTok users discovered bin Laden’s “Letter to America” in November.
The former leader of al Qaeda sent an open letter to the United States in 2002 explaining the ideology that led to his campaign of terrorism against the U.S., arguing he was pushed to it due to U.S. policies. His mention of U.S. support for Israel drew a revival in attention toward the letter more than 20 years later, when young TikTok users caused it to go viral, praising its insight.
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After waging jihad against the Soviet Union during its invasion of Afghanistan, bin Laden turned his ire against the U.S., waging a campaign of terrorism that reached a climax on 9/11, when members of al Qaeda hijacked four commercial jets. Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed when the jets crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, while a fourth was retaken and crash-landed in a Pennsylvania field.
The terrorist mastermind was killed by Navy SEALs in May 2011 during a raid on his compound in Pakistan.
