Muslims From The United States

"There's only one way to talk about Gold Star parents: with honor and respect. Capt. Khan is a hero. Together, we should pray for his family."

"America's greatness is built on the principles of liberty and preserved by the men and women who wear the uniform to defend it. As I have said on numerous occasions, a religious test for entering our country is not reflective of these fundamental values. I reject it. Many Muslim Americans have served valiantly in our military, and made the ultimate sacrifice. Captain Khan was one such brave example. His sacrifice—and that of Khizr and Ghazala Khan—should always be honored. Period."

"Mr Khan, shame on you & #CrookedHillary (Hillary Clinton) for not being truthful to all in attacks at @realDonaldTrump (Donald Trump)."

"Khizr Khan's speech made me cry because it was even necessary for anyone to say Muslims can be real Americans."

"Khizr Khan's words were powerful but in a society less deficient in public rhetoric nobody would be surprised he spoke w/o notes."

"We were blessed to raise our three sons in a nation where they were free to be themselves and follow their dreams."

"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."

"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?"

"We asked if there was some way he (Humayun Khan) 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.” ... 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 outside the gates of his base. He died trying to save his soldiers and innocent civilians."

"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."

"You can sacrifice yourself, but you cannot take it that your kids will do this."

"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 he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn’t know what the word sacrifice means."

"So I am not engaging anymore because I see no hope, I do see hope where the people who are thinking to vote for this candidate, I think it is plenty clear, his surrogates will not admit, it's plenty clear to the world that this person is not fit for the office he's seeking. He wants to do everything, I will do it by myself, I will do it in democracy, you cannot do this. That is against the basic principle of democracy."

"I remember when my family arrived here and the first place we went was the , Jefferson’s ideals are the values that we have cherished as a family and as Americans."

"This is the time for us American Muslims to rat out any traitor who walks amongst us. This is high time for Muslims to stand firm [against terrorists], among us hides the enemies of the value system of this country. And we need to defend it. And if it means ratting out the traitors who hide behind an American passport, that’s what we need to do."

"We still wonder what made him [Humayun] take those 10 steps [towards the car]. Maybe that’s the point where all the values, all the service to country, all the things he learned in this country kicked in. It was those values that made him take those 10 steps. Those 10 steps told us we did not make a mistake in moving to this country. These were the values we wanted to adopt. Not religious values, human values. Those values that he learned throughout his life came together and made him a brave American soldier. This country is not strong because of its economic power, or military power. This country is strong because of its values, and during this political season, we all need to keep that in mind."

"I just can't seem to get my arms around the loss."

"They did not call him Captain Khan, they called him 'our captain.'"

"We always depended on his balanced approach to things."

"What is important to me now is that end this back and forth, back and forth that had been lack of caliber on the other side. Just imagine and I want to indulge all of his surrogates, after we made the speech, if Donald Trump would have not taken that cheap shot at the gold star mother, we'd not be having these conversations, these discussions. Sometime for a candidate for a higher office has to have the capacity to bear with the criticism. If I had exercised my First Amendment rights as Mr. Trump does, as Donald Trump does, again and again and again, as he had been maligning Hillary Clinton, calling her names and other leaders, if he can exercise the freedom of his speech rights, so can I. But he is the candidate for the highest office, a much larger caliber is needed, tolerance, patience. When a person becomes , president, you are president and Commander-in-Chief of everybody that has supported you and that has not supported you."

"Nowhere but in the United States is it possible that an immigrant who came to the country empty-handed only a few years ago gets to stand in front of patriots and in front of a major political party. ... It is my small share to show the world, by standing there, the goodness of America."

"This is our country too, this is not only Donald Trump’s country. He is an ignorant, divisive manipulator, and through my message I wish to convey to him and to all Muslim Americans: This is our country too."

"I have no concern, I have no link, I have never been of that thought of that. I assure you I am an educated person. There is and I hope that other not so thoughtful Republican leaders are listening, there is constitutional amendment in the constitution of United States and that is called equal protection of law under 14th Amendment. Sharia Law as we have titled, there is no such thing as Sharia Law. These are laws of various Muslim countries which are hodgepodge of British laws, French laws, Portuguese laws. In there, there is tremendous discrimination of genders which disqualifies them under the constitution of the United States, cannot be implemented, cannot be brought. How can I be a person that has read this, I preach that, that I do not stand for any Sharia Law because there is no such thing."

"I really don't need any apology. My family doesn't need any apology. Apology is not what I am looking for. It is the empathy of his thinking and his thinking, the emptiness, the void. His thinking is totally void of empathy. So, apology is not needed. His saying my son is hero or not, that doesn't change anything. Today, somebody sent me the pictures of his grave site. Amazing, amazing outpouring of love and respect and flowers and people lined up there to pay respects and all that. That is more than enough for me. That is not going to come from Donald Trump or his surrogates."

"There are messages in here that we are all the same, regardless of our religions. Unite us, not divide us. Our cultures that follow these religions unite us. There is peace and harmony in these religions; and Captain Humayun laid the path for that. He -- I will give you one simple example of his character -- how he was. At University of Virginia in the basketball court, there were two teams used to play. African-American students and white American students always playing separately, not playing together, not talking to one another. He was the one that, one step at a time, he will drag one player to here and one player from there and bring them together. And in few weeks, the whole team was playing together. We received a delegation of those students after passing, and they said, "For all of our life he taught us how to come together." That is what he was. That is who he was. And to him, we pay tribute by this small gesture of trying to bring some peace in this political discourse. Trying to bring some respect towards each other. That is what he was. That is dedicated to his spirit."

"There is no greater sacrifice than to lay down one's life for their country, and that's the sacrifice that Captain Humayum Khan made fighting to defend our freedom and our constitutional rights. He was a true American hero. The Khan family deserves nothing less than our deepest support, respect, and gratitude, and they have every right to express themselves in any way they choose. I am appalled that Donald Trump would disparage them and that he had the gall to compare his own sacrifices to those of a Gold Star family."

"A man comes to him (Donald Trump), a veteran, so kindly, what a gracious man, hands him his Purple Heart. What he does, he deceives, thanks, puts in his pocket. Later on, pulls it out. I got this Purple Heart, so easy, I always wanted one. Donald Trump, you had the time, you did not serve. You know what he should have done? And listen to me and I want his surrogates to listen to me. You should have pinned that back to that veteran's chest. He wants to be the leader, commander in chief of this United States of America? That is the thoughtfulness? He should have put that Purple Heart back if he would have been sensible, he would have known what it takes to earn that Purple Heart."

"Lack of understanding, lack of factual correctness, it's just nothing but political vote pandering. They are trying to create this fear in people's mind. They have come up with this terms and these terminology that they continue to talk about without really knowing the facts about what they are talking. I want to put a footnote in front, I received information from where my website was, it is down now. This is the maliciousness and Donald Trump should say to his surrogates that no more, no more harm, no more ugliness. I received the call from the host of the website saying that we are receiving tremendous amount of hits and especially on certain pages of your website. I have a three-page small website and there is a risk that somebody will damage it, somebody may hack it. I asked them what do you suggest. They said under such circumstances, we normally keep it offline when this madness will go away, we will bring it back. I asked them to do that. To which I began to then receive e-mails and calls why your website is down, why your website is down. This is the ugliness of this discourse. There could be some civility in this discourse. It is a political discourse, of course. There could be some discussion of policy and all that instead of personal ugliness."

"He was a wonderful patriotic, deliberate person. The cadets of his school come to our home to pay tribute to him every year. We invite them to our home for a particular purpose. We give them a copy of the same Constitution that I have. I have a stack of it at home. There is a reason behind that, and that reason is for people to know when they step -- they comment."

"I have exactly the same rights as he does. He had been abusing, disrespecting women, judges, all decent Americans. He had been so abusive of them. I exercise exactly the same rights. That, again, proves his ignorance. He wants to have one set of rights for himself, and he wants to have another set of rights for others. No, somebody should tell him that there is equal dignity, equal protection of law in this country. That is why that Constitution came to play. I keep that in my pocket, because I cherish this document. I wish somebody would read it to him. Certain fundamental values that enshrine in this document."

"We want to maintain our dignity. We want to maintain my family's dignity, my son's dignity and sacrifice."

"Republican and Democratic Party both are as patriotic as anywhere and anyone. Therefore, I am amazed at the love and care that we have received, that we continue to receive. And we will continue to speak up until this candidate behaves in a dignified manner deserving of the candidacy of this office."

"Republican and Democrats are as patriotic as anyone else. This is a political process. It's a wonderful, beautiful political process. But in that political process, there are some moral, ethical values of this country that need to be maintained and managed."

"The Kahn family has gotten hours and hours of airtime and what's ironic about that was Hillary was the one that left them on the roof in Benghazi. It was Hillary's policy that crippled Libya and Syria and Iraq."

"We are private people. We participated in this convention, because a tribute was being paid. And there was context to my conversation, was that we had been patiently been subjected to maligning of this candidate for a whole year. Enough is enough. ... Every decent Republican has rebuked his behavior; yet, nobody has stood up and said, "Enough, stop it. You will not be our candidate.""

"Donald Trump needs to sit with his advisers and portray to this world that he is empathetic. You solve the problems with empathy, putting people together. There are bad people among us, but there are good people among us, as well. You gather good people to get rid of bad people, but you do not malign the whole religion -- the whole culture."

"I implored him (Donald Trump) to read the Constitution. Because that document, it wasn't just showing him the Constitution. I was pointing towards the values in that Constitution, enshrined foundation of this wonderful country and this nation. In another conversation, I asked and I appealed to the leadership of the Republican Party that they should disassociate themselves."

"He doesn't know. He doesn't know that. I saw him. He was, you know, very emotional and probably looked like a nice guy to me. His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me. But plenty of people have written that. She was extremely quiet. And it looked like she had nothing to say. A lot of people have said that. And personally, I watched him. I wish him the best of luck."

"Well, that sounds - who wrote that? Did Hillary's scriptwriters write it? ... I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've done, I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot. ... I think they're sacrifices. I think when I can employ thousands and thousands of people, take care of their education, take care of so many things, even in military. I mean, I was very responsible, along with a group of people, for getting the Vietnam Memorial built in downtown Manhattan, which to this day people thank me for."

"I am dismayed at the attacks Khizr and Ghazala Khan have endured after they spoke about their son's service and sacrifice. There is never enough honor we can show to the families of those whose loved ones have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Service to our country is above politics. I believe that each of us are called every day to show our deepest respect and gratitude to all of those who protect our freedom and their families."

"The big story of foreign influence in this presidential election is not some vague imaginings about the Russians supposedly hacking Democratic National Committee emails showing the Democrats engaged in indisputably unethical behavior. The real foreign influence story in this election involves the Saudis and the Democrats. Saudi influence in Washington must end. Khizr Khan represents an all-out effort by the mainstream media and the Democratic Party establishment to maintain that influence. In light of that, Donald Trump was right to answer his attacks, and should have been even stronger in his responses. It’s time for the United States of America to regain its independence."

"Mr. Khan more than an aggrieved father of a Muslim son- he's Muslim Brotherhood agent helping Hillary."

"This nation, we live here so often -- we are here -- we become unappreciative of the goodness of this country, but we are testament to that. We live every day. I have a stack of this -- this beautiful document at my home. When guests come, I am so delighted to start the conversation by handing them a copy. Luckily, I had it in my pocket. I didn't know that I have it. My words were different. My words were: I hope you have read the Constitution. I hope you will look for the words of liberty and equal justice and equal dignity. When I was getting ready to come get in the cab to go to the convention, when I put my coat on, I touched it, and it was in my pocket. It is always -- whenever I wear a coat, it is in my pocket."

"Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe. The real problem here are the radical Islamic terrorists who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country to do us further harm. Given the state of the world today, we have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible. While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things. If I become President, I will make America safe again."

"All this disinformation and obfuscation he is perpetrating serves the interests of the global umma – but not in any sense those of the United States."

"Muslims are American, Muslims are citizens, Muslims participate in the well-being of this country as American citizens. We are proud American citizens. It’s the values of this country that brought us here, not our religion. Trump’s position on these issues do not represent those values."

"Khizr Khan is more than just the father of slain Muslim U.S. serviceman Humayun Khan and the mainstream media’s flavor of the moment in its ongoing efforts to demonize and destroy Donald Trump. As far as the Obama administration and Hillary campaign are concerned, he is a living validation of the success of their strategy against “extremism”: by refusing to identify the enemy as having anything to do with Islam, they draw moderate Muslims to their side and move them to fight against terrorism. By contrast, Trump, in their view, alienates these moderates and drives them into the arms of the terrorists."

"Khizr is using his son’s memory not to advance the cause of the United States, as his son apparently died trying to do, but to advance a quite different cause: that of the global umma."

"Mr. Khan, who does not know me, viciously attacked me from the stage of the DNC and is now all over T.V. doing the same - Nice!"

"I wanted to say, we reject all violence. We are faithful, patriotic, undivided loyalty to this country. We reject all terrorism. She asked me not to say that because that was not the occasion for such a statement. We say to his ignorance -- I address his ignorance -- that the direct effect, the most effect of the terrorism in -- the menace of terrorism had been Muslims in the world. Muslims hate this menace of terrorism as much as any other place. It is our duty to keep this country, our country, beautiful country, safe. We have always thought of that way. We will continue to do our part to keep it safe and beautiful. What he cites in the name of Islam and all that, that is not Islam at all. I wish he would have -- somebody would have put something in his head that these are terrorists, these are criminals. These folks have nothing to do with Islam."