Love is the essence of life

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10 years have past since that tragic day. The world has never been the same. We lost many loved ones on September 11th of 2001. We lost our moms, we lost our dads, we lost our children… and ten years later we are here to remember and honor those loved ones and show the world that hatred and hostility will not prevail.

“Love is the essence of life…” said Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Muslim Scholar and The Peace Islands Institute’s honorary president. He also stated a few days after the attack on 9/11 that: “A true Muslim can not be a terrorist and a terrorist can not be a Muslim.” It was a simple, clear statement that the terrorism or acts of hatred do not have a religion. Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (peace be upon them all), they all proclaimed the same words that The Lord Almighty taught them:
“Thou shall not kill!”

Love is the essence of life…
After the shock of that tragic day, some individuals reacted exactly the same way the terrorists wanted them to; Alienate and stereotype the others who did not look like themselves, or did not think the way they did, or did not live the way they lived. There were even some attacks on some ordinary Muslims who had been their neighbors for years. Even some Hindus were attacked because they resembled Muslims in their dressings. But some wise people on the other hand started to ask themselves: Why? Why did this happen? What kind of a world will we leave to our children? A world full of hatred and hostility? This is not why God has created and has sent us to this world. He created people with different looks, different languages, and different cultures so that they meet, they get to know each other and they share. He commanded us to be good and compassionate to others, share the bounties given to us, and understand and love each other. And teach our children the same magical words that our parents taught us:
Love is the essence of life…

10 years after that tragic day we are keeping asking all the people to love each other and get to know others so we can realize once again that there is only one world and we are really on the same boat…

God bless you all.

Oguzhan Senturk.


This speech delivered by Oguzhan Senturk on at 9/11 Commemoration Memorial in Dumont, NJ on 9/11/2011