Online retailer Amazon.com has reported that sales of pocket-sized copies of the US constitution have surged following a widely publicised speech by lawyer Khizr Khan to the Democratic National Convention last week, during which he took out his own copy from his breast pocket, held it in the air and asked controversial Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump whether he had ‘ever read’ the document. A Muslim American immigrant and former Hogan Lovells manager of litigation technology, Mr Khan addressed the DNC alongside his wife Ghazala Khan to challenge Mr Trump's stance on Muslim immigration to the US and anti-Islam rhetoric. The couple’s son, himself reportedly once an aspiring military lawyer, was a solider in the US Army who perished during the invasion of Iraq in 2004.
Khan to Trump: ‘You have sacrificed nothing and no one’
‘I’ll gladly lend you my copy,’ said Mr Khan, addressing Mr Trump while holding up his copy of the US Constitution. ‘In this document, look for the words liberty and equal protection of law.’ Since his speech, the 52-page booklet, which is published by the National Centre of Constitutional Studies and retails for just $1, has climbed onto Amazon's bestseller list. Speaking of the loss of his son, Mr Khan challenged a discourse around national security throughout Mr Trump’s campaign that has falsely polarised American patriotism and Islam. He instructed Mr Trump to look upon the military graves scattered across the Arlington National Cemetery and observe the diversity of genders, faiths and ethnicities of those who have sacrificed their lives for their country. ‘You have sacrificed nothing and no one,’ Mr Khan concluded.
Sources: The Guardian; Law.com
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