President Joe Biden\u00a0on Friday nominated Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim American war hero who captured national attention during the 2016 election, to serve on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.<\/p>\n
Khan is up for the role five years after he gave an impassioned speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention slamming Donald Trump for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and sharing the story of his son, Army Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2004. Khan and his wife,\u00a0Ghazala Khan, are known as a gold star family, a title bestowed upon those who have lost relatives in war.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKhizr Khan, founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Project, is an advocate for religious freedom as a core element of human dignity,\u201d the White House said in announcing Khan\u2019s nomination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Commission on International Religious Freedom was established in 1998 and is tasked with monitoring religious freedom violations around the world and with making policy recommendations to the president\u2019s administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Khan, a Muslim immigrant to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1980, became a public, vocal critic of Trump\u2019s presidency after he took the stage at the DNC and condemned the then-candidate for his hateful rhetoric toward Muslims.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you ever been to Arlington Cemetery?\u201d\u00a0Khan asked of Trump before the crowd in 2016. \u201cGo look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it was up to Donald Trump,\u201d Khan said of his son, \u201che never would have been in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gold star father spoke to HuffPost the next day about Trump\u2019s approach to terrorism abroad.\u00a0\u201cTo really eradicate terrorism is to join hands, not build walls and exclude each other,\u201d Khan said. \u201cThat is not a solution. That is adding fuel to the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, who responded by trashing Khan and his wife and claiming Hillary Clinton had written the speech for him, would go on to impose an executive order banning immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries shortly after his inauguration. Biden revoked the order on his first day in office.\u00a0<\/p>\n