A Muslim immigrant whose son, an Army captain, died fighting in Iraq had one question for Donald Trump at the Democrat National Convention on Thursday: “Have you even read the United States Constitution?”
It was Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.
A proud Muslim-American man, his wife wearing a hijab by his side, telling the country why a ban on Muslims goes against everything that makes America America, as Scott Baio would put it.
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First, a video aired that showed Hillary Clinton paying tribute to U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who earned a posthumous Bronze Star and Purple Heart after he was killed by a suicide bomb in Iraq in 2004. Then his father, Khizr Khan, took the stage at the Democratic National Convention to deliver a sharp rebuke to the anti-Muslim rhetoric of the Republican presidential nominee.
Khan received loud cheers for referring to himself and his wife as “patriotic American Muslims” with “undivided loyalty to our country.” While Clinton called his son “the best of America,” Khan said, “If it were up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America.”
Last December, Trump first proposed his “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” More recently, he began to soften that stance slightly, saying he only intends to “suspend temporarily immigration from regions that have been a major source for terrorists and their supporters coming to the U.S.” But then, just this past week, he told Meet the Press he was considering an “expansion” of the policy that could include countries like Germany and France.
“Let me ask you, have you even read the United States Constitution?” Khan addressed Trump, pulling out a copy of the document from his jacket pocket. “I will gladly lend you my copy.”
“Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery?” Khan asked Trump. “Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing!”
Khan urged all immigrants, including Muslims, not to “take this election lightly.” To honor the sacrifice of his son, to told all Americans to vote for “the strongest, most qualified candidate, Hillary Clinton.”
Moments later, despite a smattering of “No more war!” chants, the vast majority of Democrats responded with a refrain of “U.S.A.! U.S.A!” that was louder than anything we heard from Republicans at last week’s RNC.
