Last week, a Muslim American couple appeared on stage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Ghazala and Khizr Khan had been invited by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to tell the world about their son, Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 while serving in the US army.

Khizr Khan delivered a powerful speech, full of loving pride for his son and fury at Donald Trump’s Islamophobic rhetoric. “You have sacrificed nothing and no one,” he said, his voice cracking as he addressed Trump directly. “We cannot solve our problems by building walls and sowing division. We are stronger together.”

It was one of the most potent moments of the current US presidential campaign. But when asked what he made of Khizr’s speech, Trump did what he does ‘best’: aggressive defensiveness, with a touch of racist stereotyping. “She was standing there, she had nothing to say,” he said, referring to Ghazala. “Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.”

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