Gold Star father Khizr Khan finally admitted that the United States never banned him from traveling.
Earlier in March, headlines were ablaze with the news that Khan’s planned speech at a lunch in Canada was canceled. The organization hosting him Ramsay Talks wrote on Facebook that Khan’s “travel privileges were being reviewed.”
Khan himself said in a statement, “This turn of events is not just of deep concern to me but to all my fellow Americans who cherish our freedom to travel abroad. I have not been given any reason as to why. I am grateful for your support and look forward to visiting Toronto in the near future.”
The story never made any sense from the get-go. As the Daily Wire pointed out, no American citizen can be barred from traveling to another country if they haven’t been charged with a crime. Furthermore, a visa is not required to enter Canada, so the implied notion that President Donald Trump’s immigration and refugee pause was somehow involved couldn’t have been true. Following his veiled statement, Khan refused to provide more specifics.
But now Khan has admitted his canceled lunch was not the result of the U.S. stopping him from traveling.
In an email to a local PBS reporter, Khan wrote, “I did not want to go through the hassle of uncertain rules and capricious implementation.”
Additionally, Khan was wary of “Muslim profiling.” He won’t travel again until he’s certain that he won’t have to face any sort of Muslim profiling at the border.
This raises some questions: If this was the issue with Khan all along, why wasn’t he open about it when it was first announced that the lunch was canceled? Why did he refuse to provide clarity on the matter for weeks? Wouldn’t him being forthright about it from the beginning helped raise awareness about an issue that he claims to be truly concerned about? Instead, Khan allowed a fake news story to spread about him being banned by the U.S. government to travel to Canada.
(H/T: Washington Free Beacon)