Abdul al-Sayed on America:

Abdul al-Sayed on America:

This is a country where there is no ethnic identity, no religious identity, there is only national identity.

And I didn't appreciate it that much until I went to grad school in the UK, where I met third-generation Pakistani kids and I was like, "You're British." They're like, "I'm not British. I'm Pakistani." I was like, "Yeah, but you're British. You have British citizenship." They're like, "Yes, I'm a British citizen, but I'm not British. I'm Pakistani."

And so America for me is the idea that we can unite around our differences to build something that is greater than the sum of its parts, because we believe in the process by which we do this thing.

It's funny, you know, my dad, I don't think he's been in Egypt for 20 years. And he still has an accent. He still looks the way he does. And you watch him watch the Lions on Sunday and you're like, that's full-blooded American.