Republican and Democratic Party both are as patriotic as anywhere and anyone. Therefore, I am amazed at the love and care that we have received, that we continue to receive. And we will continue to speak up until this candidate behaves in a dignified manner deserving of the candidacy of this office.
parents of United States Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 during the Iraq War
Khizr Muazzam Khan (born 1950) and Ghazala Khan (born 1951) are the parents of Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 during the Iraq War. The couple received international attention following a speech at the .
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There are messages in here that we are all the same, regardless of our religions. Unite us, not divide us. Our cultures that follow these religions unite us. There is peace and harmony in these religions; and Captain Humayun laid the path for that. He -- I will give you one simple example of his character -- how he was. At University of Virginia in the basketball court, there were two teams used to play. African-American students and white American students always playing separately, not playing together, not talking to one another. He was the one that, one step at a time, he will drag one player to here and one player from there and bring them together. And in few weeks, the whole team was playing together. We received a delegation of those students after passing, and they said, "For all of our life he taught us how to come together." That is what he was. That is who he was. And to him, we pay tribute by this small gesture of trying to bring some peace in this political discourse. Trying to bring some respect towards each other. That is what he was. That is dedicated to his spirit.
I implored him (Donald Trump) to read the Constitution. Because that document, it wasn't just showing him the Constitution. I was pointing towards the values in that Constitution, enshrined foundation of this wonderful country and this nation. In another conversation, I asked and I appealed to the leadership of the Republican Party that they should disassociate themselves.
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My wife, the brave mother of my son, Captain Humayun Khan. Hero of this country. We don't take these values lightly. We are testament to the goodness of this country. We experience the goodness of this country every day. It affirms our belief that we made the right choice. But then, to see when we got back home our four-year-old granddaughter said to her grandmother, "Why were you so upset? Why were you so sad?" A four-year-old person can feel that sadness, yet the candidate for the president of the United States cannot empathize with the people that he wishes to lead.
Lack of understanding, lack of factual correctness, it's just nothing but political vote pandering. They are trying to create this fear in people's mind. They have come up with this terms and these terminology that they continue to talk about without really knowing the facts about what they are talking. I want to put a footnote in front, I received information from where my website was, it is down now. This is the maliciousness and Donald Trump should say to his surrogates that no more, no more harm, no more ugliness. I received the call from the host of the website saying that we are receiving tremendous amount of hits and especially on certain pages of your website. I have a three-page small website and there is a risk that somebody will damage it, somebody may hack it. I asked them what do you suggest. They said under such circumstances, we normally keep it offline when this madness will go away, we will bring it back. I asked them to do that. To which I began to then receive e-mails and calls why your website is down, why your website is down. This is the ugliness of this discourse. There could be some civility in this discourse. It is a political discourse, of course. There could be some discussion of policy and all that instead of personal ugliness.
I have exactly the same rights as he does. He had been abusing, disrespecting women, judges, all decent Americans. He had been so abusive of them. I exercise exactly the same rights. That, again, proves his ignorance. He wants to have one set of rights for himself, and he wants to have another set of rights for others. No, somebody should tell him that there is equal dignity, equal protection of law in this country. That is why that Constitution came to play. I keep that in my pocket, because I cherish this document. I wish somebody would read it to him. Certain fundamental values that enshrine in this document.
I wanted to say, we reject all violence. We are faithful, patriotic, undivided loyalty to this country. We reject all terrorism. She asked me not to say that because that was not the occasion for such a statement. We say to his ignorance -- I address his ignorance -- that the direct effect, the most effect of the terrorism in -- the menace of terrorism had been Muslims in the world. Muslims hate this menace of terrorism as much as any other place. It is our duty to keep this country, our country, beautiful country, safe. We have always thought of that way. We will continue to do our part to keep it safe and beautiful. What he cites in the name of Islam and all that, that is not Islam at all. I wish he would have -- somebody would have put something in his head that these are terrorists, these are criminals. These folks have nothing to do with Islam.
His policies, his practices, do not reflect that he has any understanding of the basic, fundamental constitutional principles of this country, what makes this country exceptional, what makes this country exceptional in the history of the mankind. There are principles of equal dignity, principle of liberty. He talks about excluding people, disrespecting judges, the entire judicial system, immigrants, Muslim immigrants. These are divisive rhetoric that is totally against the basic constitutional principle. If you read the Constitution, you will either deliberately would be violating those principles or you have not read. That is why I have watched whole ear and rest of the world has watched, and the love and affection and support that we have received after my statement, at every corner of the street, at every place. The affection, the support, the love that I have received, that we continue to receive is a testament that he is talking about ignorance. He is not fully aware of these principles.
What is important to me now is that end this back and forth, back and forth that had been lack of caliber on the other side. Just imagine and I want to indulge all of his surrogates, after we made the speech, if Donald Trump would have not taken that cheap shot at the gold star mother, we'd not be having these conversations, these discussions. Sometime for a candidate for a higher office has to have the capacity to bear with the criticism. If I had exercised my First Amendment rights as Mr. Trump does, as Donald Trump does, again and again and again, as he had been maligning Hillary Clinton, calling her names and other leaders, if he can exercise the freedom of his speech rights, so can I. But he is the candidate for the highest office, a much larger caliber is needed, tolerance, patience. When a person becomes , president, you are president and Commander-in-Chief of everybody that has supported you and that has not supported you.
This is the time for us American Muslims to rat out any traitor who walks amongst us. This is high time for Muslims to stand firm [against terrorists], among us hides the enemies of the value system of this country. And we need to defend it. And if it means ratting out the traitors who hide behind an American passport, that’s what we need to do.