Winning Speech by Student from Turkey
Annual Oratorical Contest, UTS Interfaith Seminary
Barrytown, USA, March 30, 2009

Dear President Emeritus Dr. David S.C. Kim, dear professors, my dear fellow students and community members: good evening, Anyong haseyo, Komba wa, Buenas noches, Marhaba, Shalom, Salamun Alaikum, and peace be upon you all!

Let me begin with a poem:

Come on sweetheart
let's adore one another
before there is no more
of you and me
a mirror tells the truth
look at your grim face
brighten up and cast away
your bitter smile
a generous friend
gives life for a friend
let's rise above this
animalistic behavior
and be kind to one another
once you think of me
dead and gone
you will make up with me
you will miss me
you may even adore me
why be a worshiper of the dead
think of me as a goner
come and make up now
since you will come
and throw kisses
at my tombstone later
why not give them to me now
this is me
that same person

i may talk too much
but my heart is silence
what else can i do
i am condemned to live this life

I love this poem by an Islamic poet, because it puts me in touch to find life’s most serious question: how can we resolve life’s conflicts within ourselves, with others and in the world at large?

To find the answer, I studied numerous subjects — I  studied history, but I couldn’t find the answer, because there had been so many conflicts and wars.

I read books on political science, but all the “isms” were only “isms.” My course on international relations didn’t clarify the issue better, because there have been so many quasi-alliances amongst the nations. I approached the media, but there was no answer either; I found only sensationalism.

I even studied business subjects and I imagined three top-notch men of God assuming top positions. I placed Moses (peace be upon him) as Chief Financial Officer. Remember Moses led 600,000 people out of Egypt, so I thought Moses had to be good with numbers. I recruited Jesus (peace be upon him) as Chief Marketing Officer, because Jesus knows how to keep the market in order; remember what happened at the temple. I put Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) as Chief Operations Officer, because his policies worked to stabilize society, so he had to manage things well. After contemplating all my discoveries and imaginations, the underlying answer was still out of my grasp.

Meeting a dead end, I followed the course most human beings encounter — that of seeking the answers through praying to God.

So I asked God:
Dear God,

Why did you make many wars and conflicts throughout the history?
God said, “I didn’t do it, human beings did it.”

Dear God,
Why did you make the crusades and the holocaust?
God said, “I didn’t do it, human beings did it.”

I asked again:
Dear God,
Why did you make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is still going on?
God said, “I didn’t do it, human beings did it and they are continuing to do it.”

Dear God,
Why did you make the September 11 attacks?
God said, "I didn’t do it, human beings did it."

I asked one more time:

Dear God,
Why did you make the most recent economic crisis in the USA, which affects the UTS Barrytown Campus and student scholarships?
God said,” I didn’t do it, human beings did it.”

I was surprised that God gave the same answer every time: “I didn’t do it, human beings did it.” This time I asked: "Dear God, we human beings know that you are all powerful in everything and you can do whatever you want. When you want something to happen, you say be and it happens. That is what we are learning in the scriptures. So why did you allow human beings to do all of these things?"

God said, "I didn’t allow it; human beings allowed it. They lost their trust in my mercy and lost their hope in me. They think they are self sufficient in everything. They only followed their own desires, and finally they forgot me."

I was going to ask another question, but this time God stopped me from asking further questions. This time he asked me to find the answer with my own soul and heart. He wanted me to offer a prayer for humanity.

My prayer is this: “Friends, just look into your hearts, that will be the return to yourself … the return to INNOCENCE!”

Amin, Ameen, Aju.

Oznur Aycil is from the city of Mersin, in southern Turkey. She obtained an undergraduate degree in tourism from Erciyes University in Turkey. In 2004 she came to the US to pursue further studies and gain first-hand experiences. She did graduate studies in business management at Baruch College and Devry College in New York and is pursuing a master's degree in interreligious peacebuilding at UTS Interfaith Seminary.

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