Wajahat Ali is a Muslim Pakistani American who shares what it’s like to be “othered”

Ali has worn many hats—as an author, intellectual, political commentator, columnist, public speaker, researcher, and parent of a toddler who survived cancer.

 

His poignant and entertaining memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, chronicles his experience growing up as a Muslim Pakistani American in the Bay Area. In it he shares what it’s like to be “othered” and what it means to navigate the unrealistically high expectations society places on immigrants and people of color. 

 

And yet, even in this era of extreme partisanship and social turmoil, Ali is an optimist who hasn’t given up on his vision of a truly multicultural America. 

 

Among his many accolades, Ali has served as a Daily Beast columnist, political commentator, TED speaker, and a former New York Times contributing op-ed writer. 

 

He wrote The Domestic Crusaders, an award-winning play about Muslim Americans post-9/11, and he served as the lead researcher and author for Center for American Progress’s seminal report “Fear Inc., Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America.” 

 

As a national correspondent for Al Jazeera America, Ali shared stories of underrepresented voices—just like we do at DCP Entertainment. 

 

Wajahat Ali embodies what it means to be American in the twenty-first century.