Colin Powell and the Muslims

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Here's the script.

I was watching Meet the Press on Sunday as General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, explained why he was breaking ranks with his party and endorsing Barack Obama.

[clip: I think either would make a good President ... Mr. McCain has become narrower and narrower ... and I was also concerned about the selection of Governor Palin ... racial lines, generational lines ... ]

His endorsement took seven long, careful minutes to explain, but toward the end, General Powell said something that made me sit up straight. It was this:

[clip: "I'm also troubled not with what Senator McCain says but what members of the party say and it is permitted to be said, such things as, "Well, you know Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is that Mr. Obama is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no. That's not America.

"I feel strongly about this because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery. And she had her had her head on the headstone of her son's grave. And as the picture focused in you could see the writing on the headstone. ... And then at the very top of the headstone, you could see it didn't have a Christian cross, it didn't have the Star of David, it had the crescent and star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American."]

Well, that rang a bell. It sounded exactly like the story that had moved me so deeply while reviewing an HBO documentary just last week. The film is title "Section 60" and it refers the area in Arlington National Cemetery reserved for those servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Clip: "Want to see my baby?" "Absolutely."]

If you want to see it without the digital watermark, and I highly recommend you do, it's airing throughout October on HBO.

[Clip: "...sniper, you know, in the neck, and it was instant. He was gone."]

As soon as General Powell mentioned the soldier named Khan, I remembered a Muslim family featured in "Section 60" named Khan.

[clip: "I am father of Humayan Khan. Humayan passed away in Baquabah, Iraq on June 8, 2004. We moved to United States 25 years ago and made it our home because of the opportunity for freedom. Freedom of religion, freedom of expression"....(mother says prayer in Arabic). "Prayer reminds us that we are all here with a purpose." Mother: "I just miss him a lot. Especially every day in the morning, every day in the evening. (weeps) Sorry."]

I was so taken once again by the grief of the Khan family that it took me a while to realize something. This wasn't the same soldier named Khan that Colin Powell had mentioned on Meet the Press.

[replay snippet of Powell with new audio: "It had a crescent and star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. He was an American. He was born in New Jersey. He was 14 uears old at the time of 9/11. And he waited until the time he could serve his country and he gave his life."]

In fact, there are five Muslims buried in Section 60 in Arlington National Cemetery. Two of them were born in the United Staets. One is a native of Sudan. One of them was born in Pakistan. One was a member of the Iraqi National Security Force. And one was a career Army civil affairs officer who converted to Islam after marrying a Iraqi woman he met in Baghdad.

Barack Obama is not a Muslim, and it wouldn't matter if he were one anyway. It almost goes without saying -- but of course I'm glad General Powell said it. Still, his comment about that magazine photo, which has gone largely overlooked in the mainstream press, THAT was more meaningful to me than anything else he said.

For as I watched once more as the mother of Humayan Khan grieved and prayed, I realized that those who practice Islam are exactly like every Christian and Jew and practicing believer whenever they cry out to a higher power to help them with the agony of their loss.

[clip of Humayan's mother: "God bless us all. Everyone here."]