James West
One of the most emotionally charged moments of the last night of the Democratic convention came when the father of a Muslim American soldier killed in the line of duty took the stage. Humayun Khan, 27 years old when he died, was a graduate from the University of Virginia and a captain in the US Army when a suicide bomber attacked his unit in Iraq. He died protecting his fellow soldiers. On Thursday night, his father, Khizr Khan, gave an impassioned plea to the American people to vote for Hillary Clinton—and delivered an even sharper rebuke to Donald Trump.
Khan described himself and his wife as patriotic American Muslims who came to the United States empty-handed and embraced American values. “If it were up to Donald Trump, [my son] never would have been in America,” he said. He implored Trump to visit Arlington National Cemetery and read the names of the veterans who served the United States. Those names would include people of all religions, genders, and ethnicities, he said, telling Trump that in comparison to them, “You have sacrificed nothing.”
Khan drove home the point that Trump’s anti-Muslim policy proposals are un-American. “Have you ever read the United States Constitution?” he asked Trump. “I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection under the law.'”
See the full speech here:
