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Over the past week, multiple outlets have reported on Jewish Onliner’s exposé that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) directed educators, administrators, and school boards to a 9/11 curriculum developed by CAIR-New Jersey and Teaching While Muslim that included Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America.” Initial coverage, including Jewish Onliner’s, described the manifesto as a high-school resource.
Jewish Onliner has now found that the resource was directed at far younger students. The curriculum’s elementary school section itself lists The Guardian’s full text of bin Laden’s “Letter to America” under “Background Resources.” The page covering middle and high school also includes the same link, meaning the manifesto appeared in background-resource sections spanning elementary, middle, and high school.
CAIR National later removed its endorsement of and link to the curriculum after Jewish Onliner’s August 25 investigation. In a correction, CAIR said an earlier version “did not go through proper vetting” and added that primary-source documents “related to the 9/11 perpetrators” are “best reviewed at the post K-12 level” and with additional context.
To examine what CAIR's recommended resource actually contains, Jewish Onliner reviewed bin Laden’s roughly 4,000-word “Letter to America” in full. The letter, published in November 2002, rationalized attacks on American civilians, called for Israel to be erased, promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish control of U.S. politics, media, and the economy, called on Americans to embrace Islam and submit to Islamic law, and threatened further attacks if its demands were rejected.
The Guardian removed its online copy in November 2023 after the letter spread widely across social media, including TikTok, explaining that the transcript was being shared “without the full context.” House Energy and Commerce Republicans later condemned the letter’s resurgence and highlighted its antisemitic claim that Jews “control your policies, media and economy.” CAIR’s August 24 announcement explicitly tied its 2026-27 back-to-school campaign to the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and said the effort was intended to reach K-12 and higher-education communities.
“Do Not Await Anything From Us But Jihad, Resistance and Revenge”
The letter is organized around two questions bin Laden poses to Americans: why al-Qaeda is fighting the United States, and what it wants Americans to do. It opens by quoting Quranic verses that urge believers to “fight in the Cause of Allah” and against the “friends of Satan.”
Bin Laden places U.S. support for Israel first among his grievances. “You attacked us in Palestine,” he writes, before declaring that “the creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased” and that those responsible must “pay for it heavily.”
He goes on to cite Somalia, Chechnya, Kashmir, and Lebanon; the U.S. military presence in Muslim-majority countries; sanctions on Iraq; and what he portrays as American exploitation of Middle Eastern oil. He also attacks governments allied with Washington as American “agents” that obstruct Islamic law, calling their removal necessary to “make the Shariah the supreme law.”
Toward the end of that section, he warns: “Do not await anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge.”
Justifying the Killing of American Civilians
Bin Laden next argues that American civilians are legitimate targets because, in his view, they share responsibility for U.S. government policy.
He points to elections and taxes, arguing that Americans choose their leaders and fund U.S. military operations. The American people therefore “cannot be innocent,” he writes, of what he describes as crimes against Muslims.
He makes the rationale explicit: “Whoever has killed our civilians, then we have the right to kill theirs.” America, he says, “does not understand the language of manners and principles,” so it is being addressed in “the language it understands.”
The letter also glorifies “martyrdom,” describing the Islamic nation the “The Nation of Martyrdom; the Nation that desires death more than you desire life,” and cites Quranic passages about those killed “in the way of Allah.”
“The First Thing That We Are Calling You To Is Islam”
After laying out his grievances, bin Laden turns to what he wants Americans to do. “The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam,” he writes.
He condemns the U.S. constitutional system for allowing laws to be made outside Sharia and attacks the separation of religion and politics. He calls the United States “the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind” and condemns homosexuality, alcohol, gambling, sex outside marriage, and other practices he presents as violations of Islamic law.
His demands are not limited to foreign policy: he also calls on Americans to embrace his interpretation of Islam and reject core elements of the U.S. political and social order.
“The Jews, Who Control Your Policies, Media and Economy”
Antisemitic conspiracy theories recur throughout the letter. Bin Laden portrays Jews as controlling American economic, political, and media life while rejecting Jewish religious and historical claims to Palestine.
He claims that Muslims, rather than Jews, are the true inheritors of Moses and the “real Torah,” and describes Muslims as “the most worthy nation” of Palestine. Later, after condemning interest-based finance, bin Laden claims that “the Jews have taken control of your economy,” then the media, and ultimately “all aspects of your life.”
The letter repeatedly pairs “the Americans and Jews” as enemies. Bin Laden accuses the United States of “shamelessly helping the Jews fight against us” and warns that continued American support for Israel “will result in more disasters for you.”
“Leave Us Alone, Or Else Expect Us In New York and Washington”
In the letter’s final section, bin Laden instructs Americans to “pack your luggage and get out of our lands” and warns: “Do not force us to send you back as cargo in coffins.” He adds: “Leave us alone, or else expect us in New York and Washington.”
He then warns: “If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation.” Several Quranic passages and additional exhortations follow before the letter ends.
The Bin Laden Manifesto CAIR Put in an Elementary-School Curriculum
This is the manifesto that the CAIR-endorsed curriculum placed under “Background Resources” on its elementary school page and again on the pages covering middle and high schools. CAIR National’s K-12 guide instructed educators and school boards to access and share the curriculum.
Nicholas Haros Jr., whose mother, Frances Haros, was killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, criticized the curriculum in the New York Post. “The further we get from 9/11, this new generation of kids will learn to blame our country,” Haros said. “These kids are going to be poisoned — and that’s the intent.”