Commentary: A gravestone belies candidate Trump’s call

It was last year around this time when I walked alone across all of Arlington National Cemetery, taking in the autumn colors and the final resting places of those who have been buried here beginning with the Civil War.

It was then that I came across the headstone of someone among the many young soldiers who have lost their lives to fighting our wars. And it made me stop.

The headstone was marble white, like so many of them, and etched with the accomplishments of this 20-year-old American soldier. He had received a bronze star and a purple heart.

His grave was newly decorated by his loved ones, not just with fresh flowers, but with a photograph of him in his army fatigue shirt, a face looking back at me, not just the white stone that now symbolizes him and his former life. He had died in 2007.

Above his name, above his military accomplishments and birth date, was the crescent and star of the Islamic faith.

Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan was from New Jersey and the state’s 80th war casualty, “spurred by the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center,” he “wanted to show that not all Muslims were fanatics and that many, like him, were willing to lay their lives down for their country, America,” reported the Gannett News Service at the time of his death.

He was killed when a blast destroyed a house he and members of his division were clearing in Baqouba, Iraq, according to the New Jersey Star Ledger.

I thought of Khan and my visit to his grave recently, I thought about my Muslim friends, the Muslims I have interviewed over and over again in the U.S. and in Europe and Southern California, when Donald Trump made his statement about banning Muslims from the U.S., in what made me equally laugh and cringe.

I thought not just about Trump, whose intentions are clearly to stay in our news cycles as much as possible, but the people who might have cheered him on, cheered on phobia-induced flames down a very dangerous road.

It wasn’t just a ludicrous statement. It played into fear and discrimination at a time when the world seems to be in a free fall, tearing itself apart at the seams. We are living in confusing times, where nothing seems to make sense.

The last thing we need is more division, more outrageous narratives that separate, make us feel that there’s “us” and then there’s “them.” To divide now means giving those with evil intentions exactly what they want. To malign an entire group of people, to cause them to be subjected to hate and bigotry, because some from that very same religion have decided to perverse the true meaning of it, is exactly what we will not benefit from.

This is a big topic, one that is suited for more words, more thoughts, more nuances and context than one column, one news report or even several. Polarization is the last thing we need now.

What we need is to see each other as human, as human as Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, who fought and died for the very country that now has a presidential candidate who unfortunately preaches anything but humanity.

LIANA AGHAJANIAN is a Los Angeles-based journalist whose work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, Paste magazine, New America Media, Eurasianet and The Atlantic. She may be reached at [email protected].