Thread: In Tribute to Son, Khizr Khan Offered Citizenship Lesson at Convention

In Tribute to Son, Khizr Khan Offered Citizenship Lesson at Convention

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. JULY 29, 2016

Fallen Soldier’s Father Denounces Trump

When Capt. Humayun Khan was ordered to Iraq a dozen years ago, his father wanted to talk to him about being an American Muslim soldier sent to war in a Muslim country.

His son, though, was focused only on the job at hand.

“I asked him, ‘How do you feel about the whole Iraq deal?’ ” recalled Khizr Khan, who became a United States citizen after emigrating from Pakistan in 1980. “He said: ‘Look, that’s not my concern and that’s not my pay grade. My responsibility is to make sure my unit is safe.’ And that’s all he would talk about, and nothing else.”

Captain Khan, 27, died on June 8, 2004, after he told his men to take cover and then tried to stop a suicide bomber outside the gates of his base in Baquba. And on Thursday night, speaking about his son at the Democratic National Convention, Mr. Khan gave a voice to Muslim Americans outraged by the anti-Muslim pronouncements of the Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump.

In a speech that electrified the convention and turned Mr. Khan into a social media and cable news sensation, he waved a pocket Constitution and challenged Mr. Trump, “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”

Mr. Trump’s call for restrictions on Muslims entering the country is acutely personal, Mr. Khan said, in an interview on Friday, adding that he had no plans to campaign for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, nor had the campaign asked him to.

Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on Mr. Khan’s remarks. In December Mr. Trump called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” More recently, he has pledged to suspend immigration from any country “compromised by terrorism.”

If restrictions on Muslim immigration had been in place decades ago, Mr. Khan said, neither he, a lawyer with an advanced degree from Harvard Law School; his wife, Ghazala, who taught Persian at a Pakistani college before raising three boys in the Washington suburbs; their eldest son, Shaharyar, who was a top student at the University of Virginia and a co-founder of a biotechnology company; nor Captain Khan, who posthumously earned the Bronze Star, along with a Purple Heart, for saving the lives of his men, would have been allowed to settle here.
A third son, Omer, who works at his brother’s biotech company, was born in the United States.

“If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America,” Mr. Khan exclaimed about his deceased son during his speech, his wife by his side. Mr. Khan said that Mr. Trump “wants to build walls and ban us from this country.”

“Let me ask you: Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy,” Mr. Khan said, addressing Mr. Trump directly, while pulling a miniature version of the country’s founding document from his coat pocket.

Mr. Khan said he admires both Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, though Thomas Jefferson is his real hero.

Mr. Khan’s odyssey from lawyer and legal consultant to prime-time D.N.C. speaker began in December, when he got a phone call from a writer for Vocativ, an online publication, who wanted his thoughts on Mr. Trump’s statements about Muslims.

Mr. Khan criticized Mr. Trump’s statements as un-American in an article published by Vocativ. A few weeks later, he got a phone call from a Clinton campaign official, who had seen the article and asked if his comments could be used in a tribute for his son at the convention.

“I said, ‘What a wonderful honor,’ ” he recalled in the interview. “Who am I to say, ‘No’?”

Months later, the campaign asked if he and his wife would come to the convention. “The initial plan was just to go there and stand and talk to the media afterwards,” he said. “Then somebody called and said, ‘Would you like to say a word or two?’ ”

Time was tight and the schedule packed, he was told. The campaign asked whether he needed speechwriting help or any coaching. “I said: ‘I really don’t, I have my thoughts in my head,” he said. “I won’t make it an hourlong speech, just let me say what I want to say. It will be heart-to-heart.”

Nothing from the speech, he said, was the product of the campaign, including his dig at Mr. Trump’s lack of military service. It all flowed pretty easily, because he had been thinking about these things for quite a while, he said.

Mr. Khan expressed great faith in the Constitution and in a political process that bolsters a belief that “an unqualified person will never get to this office.”

“I respect the Republican Party as much as the Democratic Party,” he said. But he added: “I definitely will continue to raise my voice out of concern that the Republican leadership must pay attention to what is taking place.”

Mr. Khan met his wife at Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan. They moved to Dubai, where their two eldest sons were born, then arrived in Houston, renting a $200-a-month apartment. Eventually they settled outside Washington, where Mr. Khan worked at a mortgage company and law firms.

Captain Khan attended John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Md. In his free time, he taught disabled children to swim. At the University of Virginia, he joined the R.O.T.C. program, and majored in psychology, his father said. He planned to attend law school.

His last conversation with his parents was on Mother’s Day 2004. His mother said: “ ‘I don’t want you to be a hero. I want you to return back to me safely,’ ” Mr. Khan recalled. “Of course I will,” he promised her. “But Mother, you should know I have responsibility for these soldiers, and I cannot leave them unprotected.”

The bomber who took Captain Khan’s life drove an orange-and-white taxi toward the base. Had the captain not warned his men to take cover, “there would have been more casualties,” his brigade commander, Dana Pittard, said in an interview.

Recalling the captain’s potential as he watched Mr. Khan’s speech, Mr. Pittard said, “I had to leave the room, it brought back such a flood of memories.”

After their son’s death, Mr. Khan and his wife, who had moved to Charlottesville to be close to their other sons, had the university’s R.O.T.C. cadets over for dinner once a year. Mr. Khan would give them each a pocket-size copy of the Constitution, just like the one he brandished on Thursday, said Tim Leroux, who used to run the R.O.T.C. program.

University officials let Mr. Khan read an application essay his son wrote for a residential college. In the essay, Captain Khan wrote of how “liberty requires vigilance and sacrifice” and that those who are “beneficiaries of liberty must always bear this in mind, and keep it safe from attacks.”

“That summed up his later life,” Mr. Khan said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/us...eech.html?_r=0

Mr. Khan, your son was a wonderful young man, a hero who risked his life to save his unit. A young man committed to his job as a soldier and a Captain. But Donald Trump is not responsible for your loss. Donald Trump is not responsible for your grief. Donald Trump had he been President in 2004 would have never invaded Iraq and your son would have never been called to serve in Iraq and would have never lost his life in Iraq. Hillary Clinton as a US Senator voted to invade Iraq, yet you support her and attack Donald Trump.

You wave your copy of the Constitution around, and point your finger at an audience watching the Democratic National Convention to claim that if the ban Donald Trump is proposing on Muslim immigration into the United States was in place in 1980 when you and your family came here from the UAE, you would not be here and your son would not have been here.

Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslim immigration is based on Radical Islamic Terrorism, which to my knowledge was not a concern in 1980. Maybe it was and we just weren't aware of it. Is there something you know about this that we don't? Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslim immigration until our government has a proper vetting process to discern who is coming here for legitimate purpose and who is coming here for illicit purpose. You came here before 9/11. You came here before the first World Trade Center Bombing. You came here before the Boston Marathon Bombing. You came here before all the attacks in Europe. You came here before there was an Al Qaeda, before there was an ISIS.

When our country is under attack and facing threats, it is the obligation of US citizens to demand steps and actions by government leaders protect our country and fellow citizens, without regard to someone's religion, yours or that of anyone else. The equal protection clause works both ways. You can't use your religion to be an exception to common sense, intelligent defense, and reasonable proposals to defend the country you claim you're part of in favor of foreign nationals who happen to follow the same religion you do who wish US harm.

I read where 14 American Muslim soldiers died in the Iraq War. 4,486 American soldiers died in Iraq through 2014.

You lost your son 12 years ago because of a bad war caused by the Bush Administration and members of Congress like Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump.

What you did at the Convention was put yourself and your religion ahead of your citizenship, ahead of the welfare of your fellow citizens, and ahead of the security of our nation.

I think you have shamed your son, who by your own words put his job and loyalty to his fellow soldiers above any religious concern to be fighting in a Muslim country. Your son was an American, and saw himself as one.

It's a shame you still just see yourself as a Muslim.

Politics
Jul 30 2016, 11:29 am ET
Khizr Khan Pleads to McConnell, Ryan to Take Moral Stand Against Trump

by Jillian Sederholm

One of the standout speeches at the Democratic National Convention came not from the slew of politicians or celebrities but from the parents of a Muslim-American war hero who shared a stirring reprimand for GOP candidate Donald Trump. But that was only part of their message.

Khizr Khan appeared on MSNBC's "Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell" on Friday with his wife Ghazala Khan and said there were two other individuals he wanted to address: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Khan called both men "patriots" and "decent human beings" and appealed to them: "Isn't it time to repudiate Trump?"

The father of fallen U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan called it "moral imperative" that both leaders tell Trump "enough."

"You are about to sink the ship of the patriot Republicans," he warned.

"If your candidate wins and he governs the way he has campaigned, my country, this country, will have constitutional crises [like] never before," Khan said.

"There is so much at stake, and I appeal to both of these leaders: this is the time. There comes a time in the history of a nation where an ethical, moral stand has to be taken regardless of the political costs," he continued. "The only reason they're not repudiating his behavior, his threat to our democracy, our decency, our foundation, is just because of political consequences."

He vowed to continue asking this question of Ryan and McConnell.

The Khans appeared via satellite and were both visibly emotional during the interview. Khizr Khan said speaking at the DNC was also difficult for him and he couldn't have done it without his wife by his side.

""You are about to sink the ship of the patriot Republicans.""

"Her being there was the strength that I could hold my composure. I am much weaker than she is in such matters."

Khan expressed his frustration at watching Trump's "schoolyard bullying" and that nobody has been able to convince him "to not violate the Constitution of the United States."

"Nothing has made the difference," Khan lamented.

During the interview, O'Donnell brought up Trump's own children and their testaments during the RNC that he has sacrificed a lot to run for president. Jumping on a theme from Khan's rousing DNC speech, O'Donnell asked the couple what they would like to say to Americans like the Trumps about "what real sacrifice really is."

"You don't have to wear the uniform to sacrifice," the soldier's father said. "Sacrifice includes not threatening others, not making others feel less. Sacrifice includes considering the rest of your patriot citizens equal, same."

"He has done nothing. No sacrifice," Khan said of Trump. "He may be a wonderful father, but he is not suitable, not fit, even for the candidacy of the stewardship that he is seeking."

The last time Ghazala Khan spoke to her son was on Mother's Day 2004, just months before he was killed by an explosion while guarding the gates of his base in Iraq, saving his fellow American soldiers as well as Muslim civilians in the process.

She recalled her reaction when her son first told her he was shipping off to Iraq: "Don't become [a] hero for me. Just be my son. Come back as a son," she told him. "He came back as a hero."

The 27-year-old was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...-trump-n620131

Another Muslim who wants to "repudiate Trump" for a ban on foreign Muslim immigration until we have a proper vetting process to make sure Muslims who want to move here are not part of Al Qaeda, ISIS or Radical Islamic Terrorism. So what country and what citizens is he really waving for? Muslimism.

Go PLEAD to Saudi Arabia to take them in. They have millions of tents with air conditioning!

Can anyone find any information on Khizr Khan like where he works, what he does? I found one small source but that is contradicted by one of the news articles.

Khizr Khan
6,693 VIEWS

Khizr Khan is the father of Captain Humayun Khan who was one of 14 American Muslims who died serving the United States of America in the ten years after the September 11 attacks. [2] [3] 

Khizr's son Captain Humayun Khan was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and a Purple Heart for sacrificing himself to save his unit from a car bomb in Iraq. [3] [2] 

Khizr works as a legal consultant in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is married to Ghazala Kahn. Khizr was born in Pakistan. In 1980, the Khan family moved from the United Arab Emirates to Boston, Massachusetts, for Khizr to attend a masters in law program at Harvard University. The family then moved to Maryland, where Humayun Khan went to high school. [2]
 
2016 Democratic National Convention Speech

Khizr Khan spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention on July 28th, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [5] 
Khizr before his Speech

“I am honored and humbled,” he said. “Nowhere but in the United States is it possible that an immigrant who came to the country empty-handed only a few years ago gets to stand in front of patriots and in front of a major political party. ... It is my small share to show the world, by standing there, the goodness of America.”

Khizir has a simple message to the American people: “Together we can solve the problems, and the solution is in joining hands, not building walls. Together we are stronger. The leader for us to move forward is Hillary Clinton.” [2]

Khizr challenges Donald Trump

“Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership,” he said. “Donald Trump, you’re asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, ‘Have you even read the United States Constitution?’” The audience roared in approval. [8]  [7] 

“I will gladly lend you my copy,” he said, taking a small copy of the constitution from his pocket. [8]  

Khizr also questioned if Donald Trump had ever visited Arlington Cemetery, where “patriots” of “all faiths, genders and ethnicities” are buried. “You have sacrificed nothing and no one,” he said of Trump. [8] [7] 

http://www.everipedia.com/khizr-khan/

Compare to this story to the story in my post thread article published by the New York Times:

Mr. Khan met his wife at Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan. They moved to Dubai, where their two eldest sons were born, then arrived in Houston, renting a $200-a-month apartment. Eventually they settled outside Washington, where Mr. Khan worked at a mortgage company and law firms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/us...eech.html?_r=0

So was it Harvard for a "masters in law" and Boston for the visa? Or was it Houston and a $200 a month apartment? Was it Maryland or Virginia where they settled 10 years later when their son was in high school?

The Media is so stupid, so careless. Someone needs to investigate this family's visa and find out if he came here on a student visa to attend Harvard University in Boston or in Houston on some type of work visa from the UAE. We certainly didn't need any more legal consultants, especially from the UAE or Pakistan in 1980. We've quite a glut of "legal professionals".

Research is needed because his son's service in the military, his death in Iraq, neither one have anything to do with Donald Trump. So it is quite bizarre to see his family attack Donald Trump while endorsing Hillary Clinton who voted for the War and the Authorization to invade Iraq, which is the war that took the life of their son.

Something isn't "gellin" if you get my drift. Then the two completely different background reports, NYT "arrived in Houston renting a $200 a month apartment" and everpedia claiming they arrived in Boston to attend Harvard University.

As a citizen of America he should get it. Thank you for the sacrifice and service that his son made for America and for his unit to protect them. I know they love and miss their child.

Illegal aliens and Muslims and others who do not get or understand why we want to protect our nation from outside dangers, to protect us from those whose ideologies and religions and cultures endanger us do not have my ears to listen. We have gotten millions of people over the past few decades who like to insult us and shame us. Millions should not have been granted entry, even legally.

To be lectured by those who have been given the gift of citizenship from nations who despise us and would kill us should think more carefully before they speak.

IMO

Trump again under fire for comments about Muslims
David Jackson, USA TODAY 12:03 p.m. EDT July 31, 2016

Donald Trump is trying to clarify critical comments about the Muslim parents of a slain soldier that drew bipartisan criticism of the Republican candidate.

“Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe," Trump said in a statement. "The real problem here are the radical Islamic terrorists who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country to do us further harm."

The statement came in the wake of an ABC News broadcast Sunday in which Trump appeared to criticize Khizr Kahn, the late captain's father, after he went after Trump during the Democratic convention that nominated Hillary Clinton last week.

Blasting Trump over his call for a temporary ban on Muslim entry into the United States, Khan — whose son died during the Iraq war — urged Trump to read the U.S. Constitution and said of New York businessman: "You have sacrificed nothing and no one."

"Who wrote that?" Trump said when asked about the comment on ABC's This Week. "Did Hillary's script writers write it?"

He also told ABC that Khan was "very emotional and probably looked like a nice guy to me."

Trump struck a harsher note on Twitter, saying Sunday that "I was viciously attacked by Mr. Khan at the Democratic Convention. Am I not allowed to respond? Hillary voted for the Iraq war, not me!"

In the ABC interview, Trump noted that Khan's wife Ghazala stood at his side during the speech and said nothing, and suggested that she was not allowed to speak.

"She had nothing to say," Trump said. "She probably ... maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me."

Ghazala Khan, who helped write her husband's speech, said it has been difficult to speak about her son's death publicly. In an article for The Washington Post, she wrote that "when Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant."

Khizr Khan did not back down from his comments during an appearance on NBC's Meet The Press, saying that "we have a candidate without moral compass, without empathy for its citizens."

While he said he appreciated Trump's description of his son as a "hero," Khan told NBC that "it sounds so disingenuous because of his policies, because of his rhetoric of hatred, of derision, of dividing us. And that is why I implored him to read the constitution."

Trump's comments were attacked by many of his Republican critics, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

"There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect," Kasich tweeted. "Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family."

Peter Wehner, a former aide to President George W. Bush, said on Twitter: "Memo to Trump supporters: He's a man of sadistic cruelty. With him there's no bottom. Now go ahead & defend him."

Clinton also criticized Trump over his Khan comments, saying he is "not a normal presidential candidate."

In a campaign stop in Ohio, Clinton said: “Someone who attacks everybody has something missing .. I don’t know what it is. I’m not going to get into that.”

In his follow-up statement, Trump said the real issue is "radical Islamic terrorists," and that is why he has called for restrictions on migration into the United States.

"We have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible," Trump said.

He also had choice words for the elder Khan: "While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...khan/87883514/

"There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect," Kasich tweeted. "Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family."

I don't understand what this "Gold Star parent" term means. Is this something used by the military? The first time I've seen it is in relation to this anti-Trump speech by Khan. Anyone know?

Mr. Kasich, I would like to tell you something. Yes, prayer is important, but you need to know it takes more than prayer to solve our problems. All the prayers in the world would not have ended WWII. All the prayers in the world will not save our country. It takes action, policies, work, courage, bold talk, straight talk, and yes, bullying the bullies who have sucked our nation dry as a bone and caused the countless deaths of Americans in illegal immigration crimes, terrorist crimes, and useless pointless foreign wars, to name a few.

The facts are Donald Trump had nothing to do with the death of Captain Khan and had he been in the US Senate or in the White House at the time would have prevented it.

Donald Trump has never said anything at all about depriving the rights of any American Muslim, Mr. Khan's or those of anyone else.

Donald Trump has correctly and rightly called for a ban on Muslim immigration into the United States to prevent the entry of unneeded unwanted undesirable persons who want to come here for illicit purposes who may through their political and religious philosophies pose a threat to the people of the United States. Trump is specifically concerned about Radical Islamic Terrorists.

Now someone needs to get to the bottom of Mr. Khan's entry into the United States in 1980. Was it to attend Harvard University on a student visa landing him and his family in Boston as reported on everpedia or was it for some other purpose than landed them in $200 a month apartment in Houston as reported by the New York Times.

From whence they actually came to where they actually landed for what actual purpose is a rising question, "Gold Star" parents or not.

When you exploit a soldier's death for political purpose against someone who had absolutely NOTHING to do with the death, the orders to Iraq or the Iraq War and who was actually vehemently opposed to it, you're exposing yourselves as something far more than parents grieving a death of a son that happened 12 years ago to support a candidate like Hillary Clinton who AUTHORIZED the war that took the life of your son.

Khan's statements are not about our Constitution. Khan's statements aren't even about War or his son. Khan's statements are purely and solely about the fabricated phony rights of foreign Muslims to enter the United States. No foreigner has any right to enter the US under the US Constitution.

Gold Star Families for Peace (GSFP) is a United States-based organization founded in January 2005 by individuals who lost family members in the Iraq War, and are thus entitled to display a Gold Star. It is considered an offshoot of Military Families Speak Out. Gold Star Families for Peace now includes more than 65 families of soldiers killed in Iraq.

Joining with organizations including Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, Military Families Speak Out, the Crawford Peace House and others, GSFP is actively protesting US military action in Iraq. They have used speaking engagements, congressional testimony and protests throughout the United States.

GSFP regards the George W. Bush administration's reasons for those operations as falsehoods and grounds for impeachment of George Bush.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_S...lies_for_Peace

US Army

The term Gold Star family is a modern reference that comes from the Service Flag. These flags/banners were first flown by families during World War I. The flag included a blue star for every immediate family member serving in the armed forces of the United States, during any period of war or hostilities in which the armed forces of the United States were engaged. If that loved one died, the blue star was replaced by a gold star. This allowed members of the community to know the price that the family had paid in the cause of freedom.

The United States began observing Gold Star Mothers Day on the last Sunday of September, in 1936. The Gold Star Wives was formed before the end of World War II. The Gold Star Lapel Button was established in August 1947.

Today, the nation recognizes the sacrifice that all Gold Star Family members make when a father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, or other loved one dies in service to the nation. The strength of our nation is our Army. The strength of our Army is our Soldiers. The strength of our Soldiers is our families. The Army recognizes that no one has given more for the nation than the families of the fallen.

https://www.army.mil/goldstar/

Learn something new every day.