Father of Fallen Muslim Soldier Tells Trump: 'You Have Sacrificed Nothing'

SILVER SPRING, MD — Two sacrifices struck a sorrowful note on the final night of the Democratic National Convention: the sacrifice of Muslim immigrant parents whose son joined the U.S. Army to fight terrorists in Iraq, and the death of their beloved son from an explosive device in the Mideast.

Capt. Humayun S. M. Khan, 27, of Bristow, Virginia, 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.

Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims, said the fallen officer’s father, Khizr M. Khan, with vows to build walls and ban Muslims from the country.

Khan and his wife, Ghazala, took the stage at the DNC in Philadelphia Thursday night to a standing ovation to remind voters that their family wouldn’t be allowed in a United States under a Trump presidency – and their Muslim son wouldn’t have had the chance to fight for a country that believes in religious freedom.

“Let me ask you: Have you even read the United States Constitution?” Khizr Khan asked Trump rhetorically from the stage. “I will gladly lend you my copy.

“In this document look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law’,” Khan said as he pulled a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution from his suit jacket.

He urged Trump to visit Arlington Cemetery, where veterans of every faith, gender and ethnicity are buried.

“You have sacrificed nothing and no one,” Khan said to the GOP presidential nominee.

The fallen son of Pakistani immigrants, who have since moved to Charlottesville, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Born in the United Arab Emirates, Humayun Khan grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and graduated from Kennedy High School and the University of Virginia.

“If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America,”Khizr Khan said.

As patriotic Muslims with undivided loyalty to the U.S., Khan said his family came to the country empty-handed but ready to work hard and contribute to its blessings. He and his wife wanted to raise their three sons in a nation where they were “free to be themselves.”

Humayun served four years in the Army and was preparing to attend law school — his father is a lawyer — when he was recalled to active duty. Four months after he arrived in Iraq, Humayun was killed by a car bomber.

After their son’s death, his parents were told Humayun began a program that hired local Iraqis for jobs on the base as a way to forge ties between the two countries.

"They did not call him Captain Khan," Khizr Khan told The Washington Post. "They called him 'our captain.' We wonder how we got so lucky."

»Screenshots of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, from DNC video footage; video of Khizr Khan's speech from YouTube