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A Life of Service: Muhammad Ali’s Vision and the Impact of QED
By Dr Akbar Ahmed
American University
Washington, DC
When the celebrated Victorian author Thomas Carlyle presented his lectures on heroes and hero worship in 1841 to an English audience and selected the Prophet of Islam as the model for his lecture on the Prophet as hero, he began with a quip: “As there’s no danger of any of us becoming Mohammadans.” Carlyle could not have imagined that two centuries later the Mayor of London, the First Minister of Scotland, and dozens of Lords and Members of Parliament, and millions of British people were Muslim (Mohammadans was used incorrectly for Muslims then).
It was noteworthy that Carlyle chose Muhammad – peace be upon him - as his hero prophet. He selected the Arabian Prophet over the other widely known and revered figures, especially in Western culture such as Moses, and, indeed Jesus.
Carlyle had introduced the concept of the hero as a figure driving history. The book ‘ Turning Challenges into Opportunities’ too is about such a hero. His name is Muhammad Ali and his life in its simplicity and integrity follows the model of the Prophet of Islam, after whom he is named. Yet it is precisely that element which makes it also heroic. Ali has been widely recognized for his work. In 2001 he was awarded the OBE by the British government.
The trajectory of Muhammad Ali’s life follows the classic pattern of many Pakistani immigrants to the UK after the Second World War. Ali, born to an ordinary family in the somewhat backward area of a neglected part of Western Pakistan called Attock which borders on the Khyber Pukhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, like most people in that region has a Pukhtun lineage. Here is where tribes from north-west India and beyond in Afghanistan met the settled farmers of the Punjab. It is a land that has produced fighting men first for the British army and then the Pakistan army. Ali was a mere 12 years old when he followed his father to Bradford which became his home. He did not speak the language but along with his mother, he prepared to create a new life with his father. Early after graduating, Ali discovered his passion for serving his community. He joined the Bradford Community Relations Council and focused on issues of health and education. In 1990 he founded QED which became his passion and his career. It started as a charity aimed at improving the social and economic circumstances of people from ethnic minorities, which has gone on to make a huge impact on society.
Ali has an entire chapter in this book on the creation of QED called “Setting out my vision for QED foundation.” For all his optimism, Ali never allows us to forget the challenges faced by immigrant groups: “From the very beginning, I had a clear vision for QED. Its purpose was, and still is, to improve the social, educational, and economic circumstances of minority ethnic groups. We focused on disadvantaged ethnic minority communities because a number of local, regional and national reports revealed the growing social and economic challenges facing Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, in particular, living in this country – something that based in Bradford we could clearly see with our own eyes.” Since 1990 QED has directly impacted 40,000 people find employment in education and training; it has also supported many more people through a wide range of programs which include advising and coaching policy and decision-makers from the public private and other sectors in order to enhance sensitivity in dealing with minorities.
Throughout his long and challenging career, Ali has maintained his innate optimism in life. The title of his book is “Turning challenges into opportunities.” It is a great slogan and lesson for minorities, immigrants and those who are finding the circumstances of their lives difficult. In the book, Ali has provided fascinating insights into his family life and Pakistan and then his trials and tribulations on arriving in their new home in Bradford. Indeed, there is an entire chapter, “Growing up in Bradford in the 1970s.”
Chapter 14 is called, “Race, extremism and changing attitudes to minority groups”. This is followed by several chapters with a positive theme of adjusting to the new realities for the immigrant and facing the challenges of the times: “The art of being a good social entrepreneur” and “Changing with the times in the 21st-century.” A final chapter “What does the future hold?” allows him to peer into the future, again with his customary optimism.
Ali provides us with fascinating insights through his family story of the broader canvas within which they lived. He reminds us that when his father was born in 1914 the planet plunged into the First World War. He tells us that some million and a half Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu men from what was then British India, which included the district of his birth, joined the Indian expeditionary force. Some 70,000 of these men died and another 85,000 were wounded. He sets the stage for his father’s challenging life. In 1920 the average life expectancy in India was barely 21 years old. It was this background that produced the tough soldiers from this region who made their name not only in South Asia but across the world.
Ali has remained grounded, making sure he returned to his ancestral village. It has allowed him to see how the lines of his life could have been different if he had stayed back. In the UK, he observes that over time the Muslim community has become more religious with men growing beards and women wearing the headdress and covering themselves. This was a question of identity and reflected the changes taking place back home in Pakistan and India.
But in this story like that of many immigrants who have done so well in their new lives there is a towering often unacknowledged figure looming in the background. It is usually the father and often the mother. Ali tells us graphically of the struggles of his father, a hard-working, pious, committed man working to the very last day of his life to ensure that his family was provided for while he labored in the terrible conditions of the English mills of north England.
Indeed, if Carlyle were to revise his book he may well have included Ali in his list of heroes while nodding in acknowledgement to Ali’s father.
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