On âMeet the Pressâ today, Colin L. Powell concluded his endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama by referring to the death of a Muslim soldier, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan of Manahawkin, N.J., who was killed in Iraq on Aug. 6, 2007, and whose remains were buried in Arlington.
He and three other soldiers, including a corporal from Washington Heights, were killed in Baquba after a bomb detonated while they were checking abandoned houses for explosives. They served in the Stryker Brigade combat team of the Armyâs 2nd Infantry Division, based in Ft. Lewis, Washington.
Mr. Khan graduated from Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin in 2005, and enlisted in the Army a few months later, spurred by his memories of the 9/11 terror attacks. âHis Muslim faith did not make him not want to go. It never stopped him,â his father, Feroze Khan, told the Gannett News Service in a story printed shortly after his death. âHe looked at it that heâs American and he has a job to do.â
Mr. Powell mentioned Mr. Khanâs death to underscore why he was deeply troubled by Republican personal attacks on Mr. Obama, especially false intimations that he was Muslim.
Mr. Obama is a lifelong Christian, not a Muslim, he said. But, he added, âThe really right answer is, what if he is?â
âIs there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? No, thatâs not America,â he said.
Mr. Khanâs death came to his attention, Mr. Powell said, when he saw a photo essay in a magazine about the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. One picture showed a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her fallen son in Arlington cemetery. It was the grave of 20-year-old Mr. Khan, engraved with his name, his military awards, and the Muslim symbol of the crescent and star.
âHe was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could go serve his country, and he gave his life,â Mr. Powell said. âNow, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way.â