On a normal day during his teenage years in Louisville, a boy destined for greatness, who was then known as Cassius Clay Jr., walked out of a skating rink and down the sidewalk looking for pretty girls. He soon came across a well-dressed man who was selling newspapers for a controversial religious organization—the Nation of Islam. This organization appealed mostly to the black community, then suffering the ill-effects of segregation in the incredibly racist, white-dominated society that is America.
Out of politeness, the young boy took one of the newspapers without much thought, when a cartoon caught his attention. In it, a white slaver was beating “his” black slave while insisting he prayed to Jesus. As a Christian himself, this did something to the young boy. He took in the message behind the cartoon—that Christianity was imposed on black people and used to justify their enslavement. He was attracted to Islam ever since. Or so the story goes.
From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali
Regardless of the accuracy of the story, it paints a powerful picture true to Muhammad Ali’s path to becoming a Muslim and his relationship with the Nation of Islam. Ali was born Cassius Clay Jr., a name he did not choose, into a religion imposed on him, in a society that thought less of him because of cultural and religious bias. The Nation of Islam, as a movement, drew its strength from the fact that most African-Americans suffered under the yoke of the white establishment, which included an “official” religious doctrine that played a big part in maintaining a harmful status quo.
Ali went on to become one of the greatest boxers in history, and his fame gave him a platform and a voice few others could even dream of. And he used this platform to call out the injustices of America. Though he explicitly loved his country, he was determined to show that it could be better.
“Cassius Clay is my slave name,” Ali declared soon after his conversion, as his reason for changing such a recognizable part of his life. “I am America. I am the part you won’t recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me.”
He was hailed as an American hero for his boxing and charisma. But his conversion made a lot of people uneasy. He was truly unapologetic about it, and was not afraid to challenge the prejudices of those who would keep their minds closed.
“I believe in Allah and in peace,” he declared. “I was baptized when I was 12, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m not a Christian anymore. I know where I’m going and I know the truth and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.”
On a social mission
In spite of the predictable criticism he faced from fearful whites, Islam became so central to Ali’s life that he spent the rest of his years dedicated to show that Muslims and the Islam faith was part of the American life—for many Americans, at least—and that there was nothing wrong with that. He traveled far and wide trying to show Muslims what it meant to be an American, and trying to show Americans what it meant to be Muslim. He fought to convey that these two ways of life were each beautiful in their own way, and perfectly compatible when properly understood.
“Many people in America know nothing about Muslims. Many people in America know nothing about Prophet Muhammad. America is a big country. America is a beautiful country. All peoples, all races, religions are in America, but the power structure and the news media present a bad picture of Muslims.”
It is this bad picture that he fought against until his dying breath.
Muhammad Ali, much like his friend Malcolm X, are clear examples of the effects cultural alienation has on people. They, like many African-Americans, sought solace and an authentic identity in a religion that challenged the very establishment that had been oppressing their community for centuries already. Islam offered them emancipation, true freedom, true choice. And they could relate, with a religion despised by their despisers. It was that, and what Ali saw as the intrinsic beauty of the teachings of Islam, that made this religion irresistible for him. In his own words:
“After hearing the powerful message of Islam, and seeing the beautiful unity in Muslims, after seeing how the children are raised, after seeing the procedures of prayer, after seeing the way we eat, the way we dress, just the whole attitude of Islam, it was so beautiful.”
A double-standard against the Muslim community
Say what you will about Islam and its teachings—there’s an important difference between objecting to the faith (any faith) on theoretical grounds and attacking a follower of the faith on personal grounds. Unfortunately, it’s all too common these days to hear people call Muslims “unpatriotic” or “threats to America,” following the far-right and Trump’s hateful rhetoric.
To this day, Ali has been deemed anti-American by far-right groups, and his association with the Nation of Islam is a part his brand-managers would rather rewrite—even in spite of the fact that it was the single, most central aspect of Ali’s later life.
“Being a true Muslim is the most important thing in the world to me,” Ali said. “It means more to me than being black or being American.”
I can imagine a number of Americans say the same thing about their being Christian, and no one would condemn them. No one would call them unpatriotic. If the Christian community is not thus judged to be anti-American, it’s incongruent and hypocritical to use this double standard against the Muslim community.
You can be both a Muslim and a true American
Like it or not, here’s the truth: Ali was both an American hero and a Muslim. In spite of what some Americans think, you can be both. Being a Muslim is not being unpatriotic, just like being a Protestant is not being patriotic. America is not about a single religion—quite the opposite. It’s about diversity, inclusion, and tolerance. A nation that restricts freedom and heroism to a single religious belief would play a bad role as the land of the free.
Many people, however, think that an American Muslim hero is a contradiction in terms—much like talking about a “married single person.” But that’s a pernicious view that’s long overdue for deletion. Unlike ‘married’ and ‘single,’ there’s nothing in the definition of “American” or “Muslim” that renders either term incompatible with the other. Muhammad Ali proves that point.
And he proves it so successfully, that even today brands and politicians struggle to cope with the fact by trying and revise history. They try to undermine or underplay the role that Ali’s faith played in the rest of his life. His official social media accounts, managed by Authentic Brands Group under the supposed goal to commemorate the athlete’s valuable legacy, seldom mention the fact that his greatness goes inexorably hand in hand with his religious beliefs. They pay no mind to Ali’s own desires to place his religious life and values on top of any other feature of his legacy.
Some people simply can’t stand the fact that any given person could successfully integrate American ideals with Islam in their personal lives, while thriving in the public eye. Now more than ever, it’s important to show that this is possible.
Take a look at this other article:
Billie Holiday: The Jazz Singer Who Conquered A White America From Behind Bars
