A Muslim apologized to us for 9-11 Ein Muslim entschuldigte sich bei uns für den 11. September Un musulmán nos pidió perdón por el 11-S Un musulman s'est excusé auprès de nous pour le 11 septembre Un musulmano si è scusato con noi per l'11 settembre イスラム教徒が9.11について謝罪した 한 무슬림이 9-11 테러에 대해 사과했습니다. Musulmonas atsiprašė mūsų už 9-11 Muzułmanin przeprosił nas za 9-11 Um muçulmano se desculpou conosco pelo 11 de setembro Мусульманин извинился перед нами за 9-11 En muslim bad oss om ursäkt för 9-11 Bir Müslüman 11 Eylül için bizden özür diledi Мусульманин вибачився перед нами за 9-11 一名穆斯林为 9-11 事件向我们道歉 一位穆斯林就 9-11 事件向我们道歉

It wasn't on our mind, the horrible New York terrorist attack, because years had gone by. We were simply buying some candy in a little shop in Northern Spain to be able to give to kids on the street. We didn't have a good level of Spanish at the time, and the shop owner, a Moroccan man, had a very low level of English, so we struggled to understand each other. “Sorry”, he said as we were checking out. “What? Why?”, we said, trying to understand. “The attacks, New York,” he continued, his eyes welling up with tears. “Oh!! Wow, thank you”, we responded caught off guard. He then held up a finger as to say, wait, I'll be right back. We realized he didn't want us to see him cry. He was gone for a couple of minutes and then he was back. We held out the 10 euro bill to pay for the candy, but he wouldn't let us. “No, no, take it,” he said, as if by giving us the candy, he somehow felt better for what had happened in the U.S. years before. We left, exchanging smiles, his face seemed lighter, peaceful really, like a weight was lifted off him. We were deeply impacted by his kindness and his apology. We left his shop amazed. We never saw him again, but the memory remains close to our hearts.

**Keywords**

**Welling up** filling up.

**Caught off** **guard** surprised by something unexpected that happens.

**Deeply impacted** having strong emotion from an event.