[Vision2020] Ghazala Khan's Op-Ed in the Washington Post

[Nicholas Gier]

By Ghazala Khan July 31

*Ghazala Khan’s son, U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq in
2004.*

CHARLOTTESVILLE

Donald Trump has asked why I did not speakat the Democratic convention
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/28/the-father-of-muslim-soldier-killed-in-action-just-delivered-a-brutal-repudiation-of-donald-trump/>.
He said hewould like to hear from me
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/30/donald-trump-responds-to-the-khan-family-maybe-she-wasnt-allowed-to-have-anything-to-say/>.
Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the
world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me
felt me in their heart.

Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army
captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America, where we moved when
he was 2 years old. He had volunteered to help his country, signing up for
the ROTC at the University of Virginia. This was before the attack of Sept.
11, 2001. He didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to.

When Humayun was sent to Iraq, my husband and I worried about his safety. I
had already been through one war, in Pakistan in 1965, when I was just a
high school student. So I was very scared. You can sacrifice yourself, but
you cannot take it that your kids will do this.
'You have sacrificed nothing': Father of fallen Muslim soldier to Trump
Play Video7:07
American Muslim Army soldier who died serving the U.S. after 9/11. His
father, Khizr Khan, spoke at the Democratic National Convention and offered
a strong rebuke of Donald Trump, saying, "Have you even read the United
States Constitution?" (Video: Victoria Walker/The Washington Post;Photo:
Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

We asked if there was some way he could not go, because he had already done
his service. He said it was his duty. I cannot forget when he was going to
the plane, and he looked back at me. He was happy, and giving me strength:
“Don’t worry, Mom. Everything will be all right.”

The last time I spoke to my son was on Mother’s Day 2004. We had asked him
to call us collect whenever he could. I begged him to be safe. I asked him
to stay back, and not to go running around trying to become a hero, because
I knew he would do something like that.

He said, “Mom, these are my soldiers, these are my people. I have to take
care of them.” He was killed by a car bomber
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/khizr-khans-loss-a-grieving-father-of-a-soldier-struggles-to-understand/2016/07/28/18e8139a-552d-11e6-bbf5-957ad17b4385_story.html?tid=a_inl>outside
the gates of his base. He died trying to save his soldiers and innocent
civilians.

That is my son. Humayun was always dependable. If I was vacuuming the house
and he was home, he would take the vacuum from my hand and clean the house.
He volunteered to teach disabled children in the hospital how to swim. He
said, “I love when they have a little bit of progress and their faces, they
light up. At least they are that much happy.” He wanted to be a lawyer,
like his father, to help people.

Humayun is my middle son, and the others are doing so well, but every day I
feel the pain of his loss. It has been 12 years, but you know hearts of
pain can never heal as long as we live. Just talking about it is hard for
me all the time. Every day, whenever I pray, I have to pray for him, and I
cry. The place that emptied will always be empty.

I cannot walk into a room with pictures of Humayun. For all these years, I
haven’t been able to clean the closet where his things are — I had to ask
my daughter-in-law to do it. Walking onto the convention stage, with a huge
picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother
could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to
wonder why I did not speak?

Donald Trump said that maybe I wasn’t allowed to say anything. That is not
true. My husband asked me if I wanted to speak, but I told him I could not.
My religion teaches me that all human beings are equal in God’s eyes.
Husband and wife are part of each other; you should love and respect each
other so you can take care of the family.

When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant. If he studied the
real Islam and Koran, all the ideas he gets from terrorists would change,
because terrorism is a different religion.

Donald Trump said
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/backlash-for-trump-after-he-lashes-out-at-the-muslim-parents-of-a-dead-us-soldier/2016/07/30/34b0aad4-5671-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html>
he
has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means.
-- 

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they
shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in
lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without
guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own
understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant
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