Gold-Star father Khizr Khan keynote speaker at Indo-American Democratic Organization banquet

- ADVERTISEMENT -

The Indo-American Democratic Organization, IADO, based in Chicago, will feature Gold Star father Khizr Khan as its keynote speaker at the organization’s annual banquet October 9, 2022.

IADO, which describes itself as the oldest Asian American  Political Action Committee, was established in 1980, and is holding its 41^st Annual Banquet after a two-year pandemic hiatus, at the Holiday Inn, North Shore, in Skokie, Illinois.
Khan is the father of the late U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan who was sadly killed in 2004 in a suicide attack in Iraq.

Khan recently also received the 2022 Presidential Medal of Freedom at a White House ceremony.

He came to national prominence during the 2016 Democratic National Convention, when speaking from the podium Khan with his wife Ghazala beside him, held up his
pocket U.S. Constitution and asked then-Republican nominee Donald Trump if he had read it.

Since then, he has been a strong voice for religious liberty and minority rights. In 2021, Khan was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“We are honored that Mr. Khan will be attending this year’s banquet and delivering the Keynote address. He has a story
unlike any other and in the world we are living in today, we thought his message would bear weight ahead of the November midterm elections,” Shajan Kuriakose, president of IADO, is quoted saying in the press release.

According to IADO, it was the support this organization  mustered which contributed towards the victories in Illinois primaries, including the Illinois House, 16th District candidate Kevin Olickal; Illinois House District 51’s Nabeela Syed; Cook County Circuit Court Judge candidate Rena Van Tine; and 9th Judicial Sub-Circuit candidate, Sanjay Tailor along with many others state wide.