Gold Star Parents Who Denounced Trump to Receive Honor

SILVER SPRING, MD — The Gold Star parents of a Silver Spring Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq — then tangled with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in a war of words over the meaning of sacrifice — will be honored next month at an Arab-American civil rights group’s gala in Michigan.

Khizr and Ghazala Khan, of Charlottesville, VA, will be honored at the Arab American Civil Rights League’s fifth annual Fight for Justice gala on Sept. 29 in Dearborn. Their son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed by a suicide bomber while serving in Iraq in 2004.

The Khans immigrated to the United States from the United Arab Emirates in 1980 and became citizens in 1986. Humayun Khan and his older brother, Shaharyar, were born in Dubai, and the Khans’ third son, Omer, was born in Silver Spring, MD. The Army captain was a graduate of the University of Virginia.

In his now-famous Democratic National Convention speech, Khizr Khan blasted Trump for ethnically charged rhetoric and for “smearing the character” of religious minorities like his family, and said that under Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States, his son would never have been able to serve in the military and, ultimately, give his life for his country.

Capt. Humayun S. M. Khan, 27, died June 8, 2004, in Baquabah, Iraq, after suicide bombers drove into the gate of his compound. Army officials said Khan saved other soldiers by ordering them to stay back from the suspicious vehicle while he approached it.

“Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America — you will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities,” Khan said on the final night of the Democratic National Convention last month. “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”

In a particularly powerful moment, Khan pulled a pocket Constitution from his suit pocket, hoisted it defiantly in the air, and declared: “Donald Trump, you're asking Americans to trust you with their future. Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words, look for the words, liberty and equal protection (under) law.”

Khan’s quintessential smack-down set off a public spat between Trump and members of his party, sending the candidate’s poll numbers into a freefall and his campaign into crisis.

The bombastic candidate went so far as to suggest that Ghazala Khan, who stood quietly beside her husband as he addressed the convention delegates, had been forbidden from speaking, declare that Khan had no right to question his understanding of the Constitution, and take to Twitter to say that he had been “viciously attacked.”

To the utter bewilderment of the candidate’s Republican allies, the feud went on for days, and Trump’s poll numbers have yet to rebound — causing worry among party leaders that he may drag down Republicans in key Senate and other down-ticket races. At one point, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Trump’s criticism of the Gold Star parents was “inappropriate,” Patch reported.

In Michigan, where about a third of Arab-Americans live, many of them in Dearborn, the state Republican Party sharply rebuked Trump and called Capt. Khan “a hero.”

»Reported by Patch Editor Beth Dalbey

Image: Screenshot of Khizr and Ghazala Khan from Democratic National Convention video; video from YouTube