The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 confronted the world with grief, fear and anger. For True Parents, they also raised an urgent spiritual question: how could humanity respond to such violence without deepening the hatred that had produced it?
True Father’s immediate response began with prayer. The peacebuilding efforts that followed expressed True Parents’ shared commitment to bringing religious, political and civic leaders together to work for peace.
Prayer before action
True Father was in Kodiak, Alaska, when he learned of the attacks. According to Dr Chang Shik Yang’s account, he withdrew from public activity and prayed alone for three days. He cancelled a major clergy marriage Blessing scheduled for Madison Square Garden and travelled to New York on 18 September.
Meanwhile, Unificationists and ministers from the American Clergy Leadership Conference were assisting bereaved families, police officers, firefighters and others near the disaster site.
At the heart of True Parents’ response was a challenging message: America should take the lead in practising Jesus’ teaching to “love your enemy.” He urged religious leaders to transcend their divisions, offer moral guidance and help prevent an expanding cycle of retaliation. This meant confronting violence while refusing to let hatred determine the response.
Bringing people together
In October 2001, True Father directed the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace to convene an emergency assembly in New York. Entitled Global Violence: Crisis and Hope, it brought together approximately 500 leaders from 101 countries.
Participants examined religious conflict, global inequality and relations between Islam and the West. The gathering included Muslim voices very critical of Western policies. The gathering created space for difficult conversations, with participants continuing to listen despite profound disagreements.
True Father also supported former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in convening Islam and a Future World of Peace in Jakarta that December. The conference reflected True Parents’ conviction that Muslim leaders and communities were essential partners in building peace.
A lasting commitment
These efforts continued through the Middle East Peace Initiative, launched in 2003. Interfaith pilgrimages, dialogue and reconciliation activities brought Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders into direct engagement in the region.
On 12 September 2005, True Parents inaugurated the Universal Peace Federation in New York. UPF brought together and expanded earlier work in interreligious cooperation, peace councils and practical peacebuilding. Their vision predated 9/11, but the attacks gave these efforts renewed urgency.
True Parents understood peace as a responsibility reaching from personal character and family relationships to religious cooperation and international institutions.
Their peacebuilding legacy, expressed in True Father’s response to 9/11, leaves a demanding example: begin with prayer, care for those who suffer, listen across divisions and build relationships that can interrupt hatred and effectively protect those most harmed and at risk. The measure of a peacemaker lies in the sustained effort to turn prayer into dialogue, dialogue into reconciliation, and reconciliation into action.
Learning for today
On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, True Parents’ response offers a vital lesson for our own times. Moments of crisis call for people of character who can bear pain and tension without allowing them to become hatred, and who have the courage to reach across divides.
Violence and hatred are neither predestined nor desired by God as part of His providence. Yet people of faith and heart can respond to tragedy in ways that reflect God’s heart. Through compassion, the moral courage to stand with the weakest and a willingness to seek reconciliation, they can help restore relationships and build a deeper, broader foundation for peace.
