DNC DUST UP

In an obvious political effort to demonize Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, the Democratic National Convention presented to Philadelphia and the nation a short presentation by an Arabic immigration lawyer named Khizr Kahn.

Mr. Kahn’s credential – the reason he was given the microphone – is the fact that his son, Humayun Kahn, a 27 year old Army Captain, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Mr. Kahn, who was born in Pakistan, has never met Donald Trump, never spoken to him. He did not quote anything Trump has ever said. He made no claim to any special knowledge of Trump’s position on public issues. Indeed, he offered no basis or explanation for the opinions he expressed.

Still, those opinions were damning; not because Mr. Kahn was an expert on Mr. Trump’s opinions, but because Mr. Kahn’s son was killed, heroically, in battle. And because Mr. Kahn’s son was a Muslim.

Here is what Khizr Kahn had to say:

If it was up to Donald Trump he (Kahn’s son) would never have been in America.

Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims.

He vows to ban us from this country.

Pretty obviously, this was crass political hyperbole.

Mr. Kahn and his wife immigrated to the United States during the Reagan Administration. Their son Humayun was born long before the 9-11 attack on New York and the Pentagon.

Mr. Trump was not the Commander in Chief who sent Humayun Kahn into battle. Indeed Donald Trump, as a private citizen, expressed opposition to the Iraq War.

What then, is the genesis of Mr. Kahn’s attempt at character assassination?

It’s very simple. As a candidate for President, Donald Trump has expressed concern about the growing number of undocumented refugees from countries in which there is a substantial presence of anti-American sentiment by radical Islamic Jihadists.

He has proposed that a moratorium be imposed on immigration from such countries until U. S. Immigration authorities are able to give assurance that such persons have been carefully vetted, and determined to be coming to this country in peace and friendship.

Surely Mr. Kahn does not profess to be a radical Islamic Jihadist, nor does he offer any evidence that he and his wife, or his son, would have been excluded by any system of vetting proposed or endorsed by Donald Trump.

Mr. Kahn is an immigration lawyer who makes his living assisting people from other countries – especially Arab countries – to come to America. Much of his practice is said to revolve around controversial sections of the immigration statutes which give preference to wealthy foreigners.

Whether any of his clients would be affected by a moratorium like Trump has proposed, Mr. Kahn has not said. Certainly, as a loyal American and father of a heroic soldier, he would hardly be expected to represent immigrants who do not come to our shores in peace and friendship.

Why then, does he gratuitously claim that Mr.Trump smears Muslims and wants to ban all of them from coming to America? The answer is rather obvious. Politics.

The Democratic Party, under Barack Obama, in an overzealous effort to avoid the appearance of religious bigotry, has concocted the narrative that Jihadist terrorism has nothing to do with Muslims or the religion of Islam. The plain truth is otherwise.

And the sad thing is that people like Khizr Kahn, who could be a powerful voice in the American Islamic community condemning radical terrorism, speaking against the theology of terror and joining forces with Christians, Jews and others to expose and eliminate radicalism, chose to side with the political panderers who refuse to identify the enemy.