Epic Journey
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
On March 19, 1906, Ed Johnson, a black man wrongfully accused of rape of a white woman, was dragged from his jail cell “by a blood-thirsty mob” in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and lynched by hanging, despite the US Supreme Court having issued a stay of execution so it could hear the case. CBS Evening News of September 20 did a story of that horrible crime of 115 years ago, wherein the town of Chattanooga, undergoing a process of reconciliation, honored the memory of the slain innocent victim and revisited that tragedy.
Metaphorically, this had occurred to Muhammad Ali when he won the world heavyweight boxing crown on February 25, 1964, and renounced his old name, Cassius Clay, proclaiming his affinity to Islam. The establishment turned on him. On its front page of March 21, 1964, TheNew York Times mocked Ali when the Army declared him ineligible for military draft because of his low aptitude test marks, calling him Clay instead of Ali. Martin Luther King openly criticized Ali. Black boxers like Floyd Patterson, Ernie Terrell, and later, even Joe Frazier, continued to address him as Clay. When the Vietnam War heated up, Ali was suddenly declared eligible to be drafted for military service. Upon his refusal, he was convicted of draft evasion, and he was stripped of his boxing license and his world heavyweight title. That was at a time when many boxers with criminal records were allowed to retain their license to box.
Ali was told to comply. Instead, he chose to defy the full weight of the American establishment. He was succinct in not going to Vietnam: “No Viet Cong called me a nigger.” And, in doing so, he became an icon of the civil rights struggle as well as of the anti-war movement. Audiences flocked to hear him speak. According to basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ali took on the burdens and mantle of his race, enduring years of banishment from the ring for refusing induction into the US Army. His epic journey ran parallel to and intersected with the civil unrest in America, exacerbated by the Vietnam War. Stated his boxing opponent, Ron Lyle, Muhammad Ali gave representation to blacks.
On June 29, 1971, the US Supreme Court through a unanimous ruling reversed his conviction for refusing to serve in the US Army, accepting his stance as a conscientious objector. President Ford called him “a man of principle.” On November 9, 2005, President Bush conferred upon Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest honor.
About his evolution, Muhammad Ali said: “A wise man changes; a fool never changes.” Ali had said that he was fighting for those oppressed by society: “If I win, they win; if I lose, they lose.” Ali transcended the ring in a memorable manner, taking defeat like a man, and handling setbacks with resilience.
Ali called himself “the people’s choice.” He gave generously to charity. Over-confidence was his bane. He didn’t know when to quit, which accelerated his physical decline. Past his prime, he fought against the toughest and much younger opponents. But he had the capacity to keep coming back.
My wife and I spent an unforgettable August afternoon of conversation with him at his Deer Lake training camp nestled in the hills of Pennsylvania, a three-hour drive from Washington, when he was making an unprecedented attempt to become the first ever to win the world heavyweight crown for the third time. He invited me then to attend that triumphal bout in New Orleans on September 15, 1978, which I did.
Ali gladdened the hearts of millions by setting an example of how to face adversity. Wracked by Parkinson’s, the world saw Ali light the Olympic torch during the Atlanta Olympics of 1996. On his tombstone in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky – where the airport is named Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport – is inscribed the epitaph: “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room in Heaven.”
Ali developed the capacity to look inward and dig deep. He came to repent his error in abandoning Malcolm X. As his spiritual journey evolved, Ali came to recognize the truths for which Malcolm X sacrificed his life.
The enchantment with Ali endures. PBS-TV broadcast September 19-22 a four-night special on Muhammad Ali, done by the famed filmmaker, Ken Burns. It is also a story of America in the 20 th century.
Risk-averse Muslim Americans who complain that there are no inspirational role models to emulate in the West, would find themselves suitably enlightened and instructed by watching this masterly presentation on mainstream US media. Some of our greatest heroes are hiding in plain sight.
