Gold Star father Khizr Khan denounces "un-American" behavior in Phoenix visit
Megan Cassidy
The Gold Star father who famously skewered Donald Trump at last year’s Democratic National Convention spoke in Phoenix on Sunday, extending a message of hope amid what he sees as a spike in "un-American" behavior throughout the country.
Khizr Khan — whose son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed in Iraq — stopped at Central High School to promote his memoir, "An American Family," Sunday afternoon.
Before the event, he participated in a roundtable discussion about bias and hate crimes with Arizona Rep. Athena Salman and Phoenix-area Muslim leaders.
Salman, D-Tempe, opened the discussion with a troubling statistic: In the five days following President Trump's election last year, the Southern Poverty Law Center collected 437 reports of "hateful intimidation and harassment" nationwide.
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Locally, the state Department of Public Safety tracked more crimes against Arizona Muslims in the fourth quarter of 2016 than in the earlier three quarters combined.
Khan pointed to the deadly white-supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia this year as further evidence of "hate on display," calling it "an embarrassment to America."
He also addressed heightened anti-immigration sentiment and implored those who oppose immigration to read the Declaration of Independence's "seventh grievance," which advocates for immigration rights. The section encapsulates "how much better we will be if we have more immigration in our nation," he said.
'Unity and hope has always prevailed'
Khan stopped short of explicitly addressing Trump's presidency when asked, saying he didn't want to derail the discussion at hand.
"The country knows what turmoil we're in," he said. "We are leaving table after table at the world forum. My country, its position…is declining."
Khan finished on an optimistic note, saying it wasn't the first time America had faced challenges to its fundamental values.
"Hate and division has never prevailed — the history of mankind is witness to that," he said. "Unity and hope has always prevailed."
Usama Shami, president of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, echoed Khan's hopeful tone Sunday. He recalled Phoenix community members banding together against anti-Islam protesters who showed up at the mosque in 2015.
The protest was cast as a "free-speech rally" in response to the deaths of two Phoenix residents who'd driven to Texas to attack attendees at an event mocking the Prophet Mohammed. The gunmen were fatally shot by police.
Shami said the Phoenix protesters aimed to insult the worshippers at the mosque by stepping on and tearing up the Koran. But "there were more people who came by to support the (Muslim) community than the protesters," he said.
Salman shared plans for a new bill meant to provide additional support for targets of hate crimes. She said the bill would require training for law-enforcement officers on how to respond to and accurately report such crimes.
In the political spotlight
Khan, who is Pakistani-American, became a political star after an impassioned speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, where he introduced himself and his wife, Ghazala, as “patriotic American Muslims."
Khan criticized Trump’s characterization of Islam, saying the then-candidate “consistently smears the character of Muslims.” Trump had already called for a temporary ban of Muslims coming into the U.S.
In perhaps the most stirring moment of his speech, Khan asked Trump if he had ever even read the constitution before pulling the booklet out of his breast pocket.
“I will gladly lend you my copy,” he announced to the roaring audience.
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