Tulsans Pause To Remember 9/11

Emily Baucum, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- People in Green Country paused Sunday to remember the terrorist attacks. At the BOK Center the City of Tulsa hosted a ceremony highlighting the hope that can come from the horrors of our darkest hour.

Tulsans honored the fallen, but also celebrated how that day has brought us together.

From different races lifting their voices in song to different cultures praising above, all stood proud and tall before Old Glory.

Dr. Khalid Aly and his wife Lamiaa moved here from Egypt in 1955.

"Tulsa's our native home and country right now. This is home for us," Dr. Aly said.

Six years later, they remember when the world stood still and watched helplessly that September day.

"Really scary to see what was going on. I can still remember the image over and over of how the towers were," Lamiaa Aly said.

Most of their kids weren't even alive when America was under attack. Mohamed barely remembers.

"At the time I was about three years old," Mohamed Aly said.

He's now 13 and learning the details for the first time.

"I was reading about the 9/11 commemoration today in New York City and I was pretty amazed," he said. "Almost 3,000 casualties in all the plane attacks."

Khalid and Lamiaa say they've been lucky -- since 9/11, no one's treated them differently simply because they're Muslim, but they're raising their children in a world that's still dealing with differences.

"I remember one time at Boy Scout camp I was bullied because I'm Muslim, called a terrorist and stuff like that," Mohamed Aly said.

"There are bad people out there from every culture and from every religion. We have to learn how to cope with things when they happen," Lamiaa Aly said.

That's why a ceremony celebrating unity is an important way for America to move forward and the Aly family to honor the heroes of 9/11.

"As much as it was a bad thing there is always a good thing that can happen from bad things," Dr. Aly said.