Khizr Khan: Muslims need to ‘stand up and condemn’ terrorism

In a recent interview with Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric, Khizr Khan called on “all Muslims to stand up and condemn” Islamic terrorists “to the extent that they will have no place to survive in the world.”

Khan and his wife, Ghazala, the Gold Star parents of a fallen Muslim-American soldier, became fixtures of the 2016 presidential election after their appearance at the Democratic National Convention this past summer. At the convention, Khan delivered a harsh criticism of Donald Trump that launched a public feud with the Republican presidential nominee.

In addition to Trump’s controversial proposals for a ban on Muslim travel to the United States and increased surveillance of U.S. mosques, the GOP candidate has also repeatedly condemned Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as well as President Obama for not embracing the term “radical Islamic terrorism.” Khan argued that while “Islamic extremism — Islamic terrorism and all that — that has nothing to do with Islam, it has everything to do with Muslims because Muslims have not, in their own mind, clarified their religion.”

It should be “obligatory,” he continued, for Muslims everywhere to teach their children that the violence promoted by Islamic extremists has “nothing to do with the values or faith of our religion.”

Khan acknowledged that this is already taking place. Muslim leaders and organizations regularly speak out in the wake of terror attacks. The Council on American-Islamic Relations alone tallied that, between 1994 and 2015, it had issued more than 100 public statements condemning terrorism.

“It is happening,” Khan said. “And God willing, hopefully through all of this noise we have been able to raise this conversation, have encouraged our youth, have encouraged our Muslim community to stand up and begin to talk and take charge of your faith.”