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                                        ASSOCIATION OF PATRIOTIC ARAB AMERICANS IN MILITARY
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U.S. Muslim Soldier Dies Trying to Stop Suicide Bomber

Friday, June 11 2004 @ 07:54 AM HST
Submitted by: American Muslim Armed Forces And Veteran Affairs Council via Sgt Richard L. Dixon, USA (veteran)

His family says Capt. Humayun Khan, a Muslim and an American, loved his country and the military. He also believed strongly that peace would be the ultimate outcome of the war in Iraq .

Khan did not live to see that outcome.

The Department of Defense announced the 27-year-old was killed Tuesday in Baquabah , Iraq . It happened when suicide bombers drove into an American compound while Khan was inspecting soldiers on guard duty.

Khan, who lived in Bristow, is the 20th Virginian to die in Iraq .

"Instead of running, he stood foward to the oncoming taxi to prevent it from going inside," said Shahrayar Khan, who is 11 months older than his brother. "Even being in Iraq , surrounded by moral peril, I knew he would do the right thing. That he was there to protect and to save lives."

Flowers and condolences have been arriving at Khan's family home since Wednesday.

The family says Khan was originally scheduled to be home by now, but his stay in Iraq was extended by the military's stop loss program. He last spoke with his mother on May 10, Mother's Day.

"I told him, 'Be safe, please be safe for me.' He said, 'Mother, I am safe. I just have a responsibility for my soldiers,'" said Gazala Khan, Humayun's mother.

Born in the United Arab Emirates , Khan grew up in Silver Spring , Md. , and graduated from Kennedy High School in 1996. His family says he joined the ROTC to pay for law school.

His youngest brother describes Khan as a gregarious man who loved basketball.

Being both American and Muslim, his family says Humayun was well liked in Iraq , where he was seen as a bridge between two cultures at war.

Khan's body is at Dover Air Force Base. His family says he will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery . END

Additional Comments by Sgt Richard L. Dxon:

Dear Fellow Brothers & Sisters In Arms:

I just want to say God bless you and your contributions to our great country. I am saddened by the backlash against Patriotic Arab-Americans since 9/11. As an African-American I can relate to the prejudice that you have experienced. Yet even being sting by the evil ravages of racism, I can hold my head up high and say that I have served my country honorably and with distinction. There is no greater country in the world than these blessed states of America . May God bless you and keep you safe. "This we will defend."

Sincerely,

Richard L. Dixon

Sergeant

US Army from August of 1984-August 1990.

P.S. I am pasting a posting from the American Muslim Armed Forces And Veteran Affairs Council

It deals with the heroic actions of a Muslim American who gave his life in Iraqi to save his unit while fending off a suicide bomber. His story belongs here on your site. He gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we and the Iraqi people could be free.

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