The mother of an American Muslim soldier who was killed in Iraq castigated Republican Donald Trump on Sunday as ignorant of Islam and of sacrifice after he questioned her silence during her husband's speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Ghazala Khan, whose son, US Army Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in 2004, bristled at Trump's implication she was silent because she, as a Muslim woman, had not been allowed to speak.
"When Donald Trump is talking about Islam, he is ignorant," she wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece. "Donald Trump said he has made a lot of sacrifices. He doesn't know what the word sacrifice means."
Earlier, Donald Trump rejected criticism from the soldier’s father said the Republican presidential nominee had “sacrificed nothing and no one” as well as questioned whether Ms Khan was allowed to speak during the couple’s appearance at the Democratic convention.
“I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices,” Mr Trump told ABC News in excerpts of an interview posted on Saturday. “I work very, very hard.”
Khizr Khan, a US citizen of Pakistani origin and a Muslim, won widespread praise when he spoke Thursday at the Democratic National Convention, telling the story of his son who was killed by a bomb in Iraq in 2004.
He also attacked Mr Trump for proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and asked if the candidate had read the US Constitution.
He pulled out a pocket-copy from the inside of his suit coat, in one of the most commented moments on the night that Hillary Clinton accepted her party's nomination for president.
“Did Hillary’s script writers write it?” Mr Trump asked ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in the interview, saying he has indeed sacrificed by employing thousands of people, and raising “millions of dollars” for veterans.
Mr Trump said Mr Khan appeared “very emotional and probably looked like a nice guy to me”.
But the businessman also cast doubt on why Mr Khan’s wife did not speak. “She was standing there, she had nothing to say, she probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say, you tell me,” Mr Trump said.
Ms Clinton at a campaign rally Saturday night in Youngstown, Ohio, said the Kahns specifically, and Muslims generally, are the most recent recipients of Mr Trump's insults, and referenced his past statements about immigrants and the disabled.
“It’s a long list my friends. I don’t know, maybe he doesn’t have anything positive to say,” Ms Clinton said.
Earlier in the day, Ms Clinton said in a statement that she was “very moved to see Ghazala Khan stand bravely and with dignity in support of her son on Thursday night. And I was very moved to hear her speak last night, bravely and with dignity, about her son’s life and the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country.”
Ghazala Khan told MSNBC on Friday that she chose not to speak because she still cannot bear to see her son's photographs. Khizr Khan told the New York Times that the Clinton campaign asked if he need speechwriting help or coaching.
“I said: ‘I really don’t, I have my thoughts in my head,’” Mr Khan told the Times, adding, “’Just let me say what I want to say. It will be heart-to-heart’.”
Reuters