Khizr Khan, father of a fallen army hero, who has flashed to national limelight after challenging Republican candidate Donald Trump, has a word of advice for American Muslims: participate in political process.
“In American democracy, you can be a voice only when you take part in the democratic and political processes. In this respect, the least American Muslims can do is register as voters and cast the ballot,” the Pakistani American said in an interview.
Khan’s son Army Captain Humayun Khan was killed in Iraq in 2004, earning a Purple Heart medal for his bravery in saving lives of fellow soldiers.
During all these years since then the Gold Star parents kept their grief private. But last month, invited to speak at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia, Khan, a Harvard-educated lawyer turned tables on Trump, who has been advocating a ban on Muslims with a constant vilifying campaign against the community in the wake of terrorist incidents in Western cities.
“Because we do not participate in the democratic processes, our voice as a community does not get heard,” Khan told Geo News.
The lawyer’s passionately challenging the freewheeling Trump whether the real estate businessman had ever read the U.S. Constitution and that he had sacrificed nothing for the country is now widely perceived as a moment, a turning point, that shook up the heightened political scenario.
As usual, Trump retorted to the criticism with an attempt to insult the Khizr Khan’s family, something that backfired and incurred billionaire businessman widespread rebuke from across the political spectrum.
Khan’s appearance holding out his pocket size Constitution book alongside his wife Ghazala Khan has become a symbol of opposition to politics of hate and fear. He has described it a conscious decision to speak openly at the Democratic Convention – where he supported Hillary Clinton – and underlined how immigrants and American Muslims contribute to U.S. security and development as patriotic citizens.
Asked in an interview if he regretted making his personal grief public, Khan said he did so to address a larger question in the political campaign, which has been focusing much on immigrants and American Muslims with their negative portrayals.
“No, no, not at all, not at all. We are really deliberate people. We have discussed it, that there is going to be criticism. Generally grief is something so very private, and it had been private for us all these years. It is – our whole family sad, and when – first, we did not seek that we should be invited. It came to us. So I sat for hours thinking would this be the right time? I will have such a burden on my conscience if I would have not spoken,” he told the National Public Radio.
“In the midst of the grief, we don’t set our conscience aside. There are some prices that must be paid. There are certain concerns and certain hearts that must be touched, regardless of the price. Some moments come where you have to run naked on the street in the public so that somebody’s heart could be hardened, somebody’s concern could be addressed. That is OK. There is no shame in that. Some day – and I’m strong believer that when we appear in front of our God, I will have one thing to say about myself that regardless of this, I prefer to comfort a scared heart,” he added.
He also answered a question in the interview whether he would have done things differently in the face of outpouring of both love and hate.
“I will do million time. I’ll do it hundred million time. It’s the time – now is the time for the rest of the world to see that true America, the decent America, the good America – somehow, some of political pandering and Donald Trump’s rhetoric had put a bad name to my country, and I will stand to correct it. I will do it a million time.”
