00:00And let me bring in Dr. Alia Nazneen Jukaku, who is a U.S. Senator Abdul Al-Sayed's wife's aunt.
00:08And she's joining me from Bhatkal in Karnataka.
00:11Ma'am, Abdul Al-Sayed has created history as America's first Muslim senator.
00:18What does this moment really mean for your family?
00:24Thank you for having me. We are overwhelmed. We are overjoyed.
00:30I don't think it has sunk in yet. Alhamdulillah.
00:33It's a big moment for our entire family.
00:37All brothers and sisters who are alive so far.
00:41Yes, my brother and all his children, of course.
00:46My children, my brothers and sisters, we're all very excited and happy.
00:50This is a really big moment.
00:52We are used to local politics. My father was a politician.
00:55My uncle was a politician. So we are used to politics.
00:59But this is on a different level, isn't it?
01:02And to be the first Muslim senator in the history of U.S. is a great moment.
01:07We are still sinking. It's still sinking.
01:09And it hasn't dawned on us yet what it means, isn't it?
01:15But after he's thrown in, probably it will be more evident.
01:21Dr. Alia, was there a discussion within the family at any point?
01:24Sarah comes from a family of politics, as you said.
01:27But Abdul, of course, doesn't have that background.
01:30This will be seen as a significant barrier being broken in American politics.
01:35What was really happening in the family on the results night?
01:39Were you praying through the night?
01:43We were all awake. Our eyes and ears were glued to the news channels.
01:49We were watching Michigan, the venue, the Democratic venue, overnight, all the time.
01:56We never switched off our phones or TVs.
01:59Yes. Of course, we knew he was contesting.
02:02He had contested for governor before.
02:04But that time, it wasn't at such a feverish pitch, wasn't it?
02:07It was a very laid-back affair.
02:10He lost because I think at that time, neither was he ready, nor was the state ready to receive him.
02:17So we knew he was interested in politics.
02:20And then he became the CNN's medical sort of represent, you know, public health correspondent.
02:30So he was always in the limelight.
02:32He was always famous in a way, but probably locally than nationally.
02:38We knew he was contesting.
02:40Even when he won the primaries, we were all very apprehensive and watching the news.
02:47I think we stayed up two nights waiting for the results.
02:50And when he won, it was by narrow margin.
02:54So at this time, we were all very anxious and we were waiting for the moment.
02:58But, yeah, my brother was keeping us updated with the numbers.
03:03So we knew he was winning.
03:05And then he just wrote, he won.
03:08That's it.
03:08And there was cheering on the WhatsApp group.
03:11Because all of us family members are scattered all over the world.
03:15No two people live in the same city among us, brothers and sisters.
03:19So it's always by phone and WhatsApp.
03:21But we are very close.
03:22My brother, we speak to him at least two times or three times a week normally.
03:27And now and then, Sarah would, whenever she's in the house, she would talk to us.
03:31But Abdur Rahman was always busy once or twice.
03:33Yeah, when he was campaigning, some relative was there.
03:36They allowed us to talk to him.
03:39That's how we were in touch.
03:41But we were in the loop all along.
03:43Abdul's Muslim identity was something that was discussed a lot during this campaign.
03:48In fact, the U.S. president went to the extent of calling him a jihadist.
03:53Did at any point the family get worried with the sheer shrillness of this campaign?
04:00See, how these things land in America, we don't know.
04:04We live in poor little Batkal town.
04:06How it impacts, we don't know.
04:08We just used to watch all these clips.
04:11But somehow Abdur Rahman was very cool about it.
04:16It never bothered him.
04:17He knew how to handle all this Malal, you know, Badnami.
04:26He used to handle it very well.
04:28He was very cool.
04:30He knew how to reply.
04:32And he was more focused on his goals.
04:35He never let all that upset him.
04:37He was only focused on his goals of providing health care, seeing that inflation is stopped so that people can
04:47afford food and gas and his political statement.
04:53So since he remained focused and glued to his cause, God also helped him.
04:58And of course, all of us were praying very, very hard day and night that Allah gives him success and
05:04gives him something like may the best man win kind of prayers.
05:10Yeah.
05:11My last question to you, Dr. Alia.
05:15As you said, he campaigned on issues such as cost of living, housing, public services and affordability.
05:22What do you think connected him with the voters?
05:28I think it was his very campaign motto.
05:35He was very clear about what his goals were.
05:38And he went door to door.
05:40He has campaigned.
05:41I think in one day he used to do five to six campaigns.
05:44I was wondering how he gets the energy to do it.
05:48But he's very energetic.
05:49He has always been very committed from the start, even when he was a student.
05:53He got married when he was an undergraduate student.
05:57So we know him from 20 years, right?
05:59So we've always seen he's very focused.
06:02So he used to discuss about the medical problems in the U.S.
06:08and how he could change things for the better.
06:12And he always discussed that with us.
06:14He always spoke to us about it.
06:17And, yeah, and he said that then he became, that's why he did public health, right?
06:22Because if you're a doctor, you see one patient, two patients.
06:25If you're a public health expert, you make a change for a large group of people.
06:31So when he went into public health, he became the director of health in Michigan.
06:36He was the director of Wayne County and several other positions.
06:40I'm not sure about the names.
06:41I don't remember them.
06:42But he always did his best.
06:44And when he reached the maximum capacity, he was looking for other fields to play on.
06:49And he always said that he wanted to make a large-scale impact.
06:54What he's doing is not enough.
06:55There is still so many public health problems out there that need to be addressed and can be addressed.
07:02So when he reached the pinnacle in public health, he said, OK, now I think I need to branch out.
07:07And then he remembered what Bill Clinton had told him, that he should become a politician because he has the
07:13right characteristics to become a good politician.
07:17So he said, OK, now maybe I think if I become a politician, I can do better.
07:21So that's when he decided that he wants to go into politics.
07:27That's when he stood for governor.
07:28That was the absolute start.
07:31And then he didn't win.
07:32Then he went on to become the health correspondent for CNN.
07:35So he used to address a lot of public health issues.
07:38So he was always in this field of doing service to the public in whatever capacity he could.
07:50All right.
07:51Dr. Alia Nazneen-Jukaku, really appreciate your time.
07:54Thank you so much for joining us.
07:55Dr. Alia Nazneen-Jukaku, really appreciate your time.
