Khizr Khan, the muslim father whose American soldier son that was killed in Iraq in 2004, has decided to cancel a speech in Toronto, Canada due to new travel restriction fears. He said he was notified that has travel privileges were under scrutiny. Khizr Khan is an American born in Pakistan. He stated that he wasn't told why his travel privileges are now being reviewed. He also hasn't revealed which U.S. agency ordered the review and what exact type of review it was.
Khan planned to speak at Toronto luncheon about the president
Khizr Khan had planned to speak at a luncheon in Toronto today about President Trump and his policies.
The organization that was going to host the luncheon called Ramsay Talks ran by Bob Ramsay, said in a statement, "Mr. Khan will not be traveling to Toronto on march 7 to talk about unity, understanding, tolerance, and the rule of law." The organization added that refunds would be given to those that were planning to attend. Mr Khan, who has been a U.S. citizen for 30 years, said he was deeply concerned for not only himself but all Americans who cherish their freedom to travel abroad. He then mentioned he was grateful for the support of those that were hosting the event and looked forward to going to Toronto in the near future.
An attorney for the Khurgel Immigration Law Firm in Irvine, California named Jeff Khurgel, explained that there is no logical reason to keep naturalized citizens from having the same travel rights as a citizen born in the U.S.
Khurgel elaborated that if the government suspected a citizen of criminal wrong doing and then charged them with a crime, only then should their travel privileges be suspended.
Is Khan being politically targeted?
Although, President Donald Trump just signed a revised executive order to ban immigration from six Muslim countries, Pakistan isn't one of them, and the ban doesn't include U.S.
citizens or permanent residents. However, Khizr Khan and his wife Ghazala Khan, last summer attended the Democratic National Convention to support Hillary Clinton for president. He went on to relay the story of his dead son, Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was slain during the Iraq war. He was also a huge critic of President Trump's proposal to ban Muslims temporarily from visiting the U.S.
During Khan's famous DNC speech he questioned if the president ever read the constitution while he held it up and offered to happily give him his copy. He lectured the president to look for the words such as liberty and the equal protection of the law in the constitution.
Later the president mocked Khizr Khan's speech by wondering if Clinton's writers wrote it and mocked his wife's silence by questioning if Ghazala Khan was even allowed to speak. Khan and President Trump continued to express their differences over the summer. Could President Trump be using this travel ban to politically target the gold star father for his outspoken views? For instance on February 2nd, Khan appeared on a panel discussion at the U.S.
Capitol blasting the Muslim and refugee ban as a malicious attack on religious freedom. Could this be President Trump's way of trying to get even with Khan or it could be an innocent mistake? Either way, hopefully this unfortunate incident will be resolved as soon as possible. It certainly wouldn't look good if the most outspoken critic of the Muslim ban wasn't allowed to travel himself.
