Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan say that even after this election is over, they plan to continue fighting to bridge divides.
The Khans, Muslim Americans who lost their son Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan in 2004 during the Iraq War, addressed their remarks to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“I want him to know that this is not only his America, it belongs to all of us, same dignity, same respect, same rights as any other American,” Khizr Khan said Tuesday night on MSNBC’s “The Last Word.” “That is the beauty, those are the values that make this country, make us move forward, make us think so passionately about the well-being of this nation.”
Regardless of the election result, he and his wife will continue to speak about “how to reconcile, how to remove the divisions that Donald Trump has sowed.”
“This country had showered us with love,” he added. “We owe this country that, we owe that dialogue.”
When asked about what she would have said had she spoken at the Democratic National Convention ― where she stood onstage with her husband as he made his now-famous speech ― Ghazala Khan expressed her gratefulness for being able to live in the U.S. and appreciation for those who made her feel welcome.
“Our journey started at that day because we wanted to bring people together,” she said. “I love to be here in America because when I came here first time I had such nice neighbors, such nice people, they greeted me love, with respect. They didn’t ask me who I am, they didn’t ask me if I am a Muslim or any religion. They just saw me as I am.”
The couple received widespread attention following Khizr Khan’s speech at the DNC in July, during which he challenged Trump’s Islamophobic rhetoric. Khan pulled a copy of the U.S. Constitution out of his pocket and offered to give it to Trump.
“Let me ask you, have you even read the U.S. Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy,” Khan said. “Look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law.’”
Trump and his surrogates spent the post-convention period trying to tie Khan and his family to radical Islamic terrorism.
Khizr Khan was featured in an ad for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton last month, in which he asks whether his son would have a place in Trump’s America. He has also campaigned for her in several states, including Virginia and New Hampshire.
The Huffington Post presidential forecast model gives Clinton a 98 percent chance of winning.
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