CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold
Star parents whose appearance at the Democratic National Convention created a
firestorm for Donald Trump, say they felt compelled to speak out because the
welcome they felt when they immigrated to the United States nearly four decades
ago is eroding in the face of this year's presidential campaign.
Even the decision to wear a hijab, the traditional head
scarf worn by some Muslim women including Ghazala Khan, has become the source
of anxiety.......
"You see people wearing scarves, people are pointing
fingers at them and throwing them out of flights and calling them names when
they pass by and all of that," Khizr Khan, 66, said on Capital Download.
"Most Americans are against this kind of nonsense, but there is an element
that has gotten voice, has been encouraged by this political rhetoric, and
especially this election season has made it worse."
He says Trump's call to ban all Muslim immigrants — a
position the Republican nominee has since modified — and his provocative
statements against Mexicans and others bear some of the responsibility for a
loss of civility and restraint. "The voices that wouldn't dare because
they were afraid of the decent America to condemn them ... have gathered
courage to show their ugliness," he told USA TODAY's weekly video
newsmaker series.
Khan and his wife are newcomers to the political wars,
naturalized citizens who have voted for both Democrats and Republicans. It was
less than two weeks ago that, standing on stage at the Wells Fargo Center in
Philadelphia, Khizr Khan pulled his worn pocket-sized copy of the Constitution
from his pocket and defiantly offered to loan it to Trump to read.
A lawyer, Khan has long passed out copies of the
Constitution to students and others. The binding of his own copy is falling
apart, with passages including the Fourteenth Amendment highlighted and notes
written in the margins.
Since the convention, the couple have become among the
best-known Muslim Americans in the nation — interviewed on TV and radio,
profiled on the front pages of newspapers, even the subject of a crowd-sourced
fundraising campaign encouraging him to run for the Virginia House of
Delegates. Their home here features a large American flag flying near the
entrance and a wall of the living room dedicated to the memory of their son,
Humayun, a U.S. Army captain who died a hero in Iraq in 2004.
After their appearance, Trump complained Khizr Khan
unfairly had attacked him and questioned why Ghazala Khan hadn't spoken on
stage. (She says the photo of her son projected behind them would have made her
break down in tears.) The Republican leaders who implicitly rebuked Trump by
publicly expressing sympathy and respect included Trump's running mate, Indiana
Gov. Mike Pence, who called their son "an American hero."
In an ABC News/Washington Post Poll released Sunday,
three of four Americans disapproved of the way Trump had handled the situation.
Just 13% of registered voters in the nationwide survey approved.
Hundreds of letters and cards, most friendly, have
arrived at the Khans' home since then, many addressed simply to "Mr. and
Mrs. Khan, Charlottesville, VA." They nearly fill a cardboard banker's box
on the dining-room table. Dozens more are piled on the kitchen table, where
Ghazala Khan is reading and responding to them. For now, she puts aside the
ones without return addresses or signatures — more than likely negative ones
that accuse them of being political pawns or worse.
USA TODAY
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