The Council on American-Islamic Relations launched a social media campaign under the hashtag #CanYouHearUsNow following Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump’s slur towards the Muslim-American mother of a fallen US Army Captain, Humayun Khan.
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“To the military and veterans community, nothing is more sacred or honored than our Gold Star parents”, says the letter, which was shared with the Washington Post. Khan took ten steps toward the vehicle before it exploded and killed him.
In the United States, parents who have lost a child in war are known as Gold Star families.
The Khans bristled at that suggestion and, in numerous television appearances over the weekend, said Trump was ignorant about Islam and about their family’s sacrifice. “He’s about 20 stones away from my son”, said Meredith.
“There was no need to comment the way he commented”, Khan said on Monday. The episode shows a lack of grace, judgment and, most disturbingly, empathy in Trump, who seeks to be president of all Americans but can not see or understand them for who they really are. “Nobody should say anything other than ‘Thank you for your service'”. Her brother, Marine 1st Lt. Travis Manion, was killed in Iraq in 2007.
Trump’s sustained hostility toward the Khans – alarming in part because criticism of Gold Star families of war dead has traditionally been off limits in American political discourse – has received bipartisan condemnation including from Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war once mocked by Trump for being captured in Vietnam.
The father of the slain Muslim US soldier at the centre of a controversial feud with Donald Trump said on Monday he had no desire to escalate the conflict and that it’s time to “join hands with good Muslims”, even as the Republican presidential candidate attacked him again on Twitter.
In his first rally after the controversy blew up, Trump spoke at length and took several questions at a town hall rally in Columbus, Ohio, on Monday – never once mentioning the Khans. “If I were president, his son wouldn’t have died, because I wouldn’t have been in the war, if I was president back then”.
Gov. Mike Pence issued a statement Sunday night calling Cpt. 3 of them are women.
Obama supported Khan, said they represent best of US.
In a statement, McCain, an Arizona Republican and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized Trump’s remarks. I can not emphasise enough how deeply I disagree with Mr. Trump’s statement.
Donald Trump is fighting a political battle against some military families tonight.
Khizr Khan also repeated his call for House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), to repudiate Trump, saying they have a moral obligation to speak out against their party’s standard-bearer.
US President Barack Obama delivers remarks on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 27, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Army Spc. Christopher Neiberger was killed in Iraq in 2007.
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Trump’s presidential campaign appealed to Capitol Hill for support yesterday as his attacks on the Khans sparked growing concern and dismay from Republican lawmakers responding to the latest outburst to blindside his party colleagues.
