JFK and his brother Bobby were real, hence they both met their end riddled with assassin’s bullets; Bob Marley was real, that’s why the CIA poisoned him with their weaponised cancer ; MLK was real, hence he was shot etc.

But Muhammad Ali lived to be 74 years old, he escaped the fate of the ‘real heroes’; so are we to infer that he was somehow fake, that he really worked for ‘the man’?

I don’t think so, I think that the tragic onset of Parkinson’s disease in the early 80s saved Muhammad from the risk of being bumped off; as Parkinson’s robbed him of his vocal abilities, it also rendered him no threat to the powers that be.

To me, it would seem very likely that, had Ali not lost his speaking ability he would have made himself enough of a problem that it was pretty much inevitable that he would have been bumped off, probably with the weaponised cancer that was a CIA favourite (and probably still is today).

If Ali had remained healthy, what would he have chosen to do with his life after he retired from boxing? He was a staunch Democrat who campaigned for Jimmy Carter in 1980. Of course, Reagan won in 1980, ushering in 12 years of Republican government that laid the foundations for the takeover of America by the corporations and vested interests that have done so much post 9-11 to destroy the nation. Ali retired from the ring in 1981; he had already begun having tremors in his hands and speech back in 1980, before the tragic farce of the Larry Homes fight but was not diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease until 1984.

Ali had been a highly political person all his life, railing against racism and segregation from his early teens; becoming an activist after winning the Olympic gold medal but being refused service at a local five-and-dime store due to the colour of his skin. In 1964 he renounced both Christianity and his ‘slave name’ of Cassius Clay, choosing to convert to Islam and taking the name Muhammad Ali. His new found faith and anger at the racism and segregation of American society made him a controversial figure; he spoke out against white America and integration:

Integration is wrong. We don’t want to live with the white man; that’s all.

Sometimes he really courted controversy:

No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.

As Ali grew older, he mellowed somewhat – the anger of youth naturally fades in all of us; however he felt so strongly against the Vietnam War that he refused to be drafted into the armed forces, explaining his stance with the memorable line:

I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong… No Viet Cong ever called me nigger.

Ali refused to be coerced, despite being stripped of the Boxing World Heavyweight Title and sentenced to 3 years in jail; like a true champion he fought back, taking his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where he was acquitted of all charges. However, he lost 3 years from the prime of his career because he was refused a license to box in the US.

Although not able to fight in the ring, during this time Ali fought for civil rights and racial equality; it is even said that he inspired Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to finally stand up to then-president Lyndon Johnson against the Vietnam War. Some also say that Dr. King was able to frighten Johnson into making the Civil Rights Act much further reaching in it’s reforms than even JFK had dared to propose by warning that if the Act didn’t go far enough, there was a great risk of an entire generation of young black men becoming radicalised and joining  groups such as the Nation of Islam, of which Ali was a prominent figure at that time.

Ali was loved and respected as an athlete by white and black America alike. His high-profile, celebrity status did much to bring issues to the forefront and he had real influence in American society, especially the black portion. If he had chosen to enter politics at this moment, who knows what might have been, but instead he returned to the ring; past his prime but with a burning desire to overcome the injustice of white society and once again be the heavyweight champion of the world. The old speed and reflexes were now dulled but the brain, heart and guts remained and Ali gave us several performances that were not only among the finest ever witnessed in the pugilistic arts but in any sporting endeavour ever created. Sadly, the ferocity of his battles with Foreman, Frazier, Norton and Holmes contributed greatly to the onset of the Parkinson’s Disease that blighted the later years of Ali’s remarkable life.

Ali’s illness created one of the great ‘what ifs’ of recent times – what if he had not contracted Parkinson’s and had chosen to enter the world of politics? Perhaps he would have run as a Democrat against Reagan in 84 or against Daddy Bush in 88? Would white America have voted for a black Muslim? If anyone could have talked his way into the White House it would have been Ali. In the modern world of politics where soundbites are everything and Donald Trump is having great success by spouting controversial things that make great soundbites, Ali would have strode roughshod over everyone else as when it came to verbal sparring, Ali was undoubtedly the greatest.

Even though he was reaching the end of his life, Muhammad Ali wasn’t having any of Donald Trump’s grotesquely racist antics; in perhaps his last fight and greatest knockout he called Trump out as the liar and the racist that he is. Soon after Trump proposed his “ban” on Muslims entering America, Ali released a 132-word statement:

I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.

We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda. They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know that it goes against our religion to try and force Islam on anybody.

Speaking as someone who has never been accused of political correctness, I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is.

With these words Ali proved that even at the end of his life, he could still land a knockout blow; oh how we dearly need more people like Ali – people with the courage and strength to fight for their long-held beliefs, to defend to their dying breath what they, in their hearts know to be right and true. Ali would have made mincemeat out of Trump and treated us to a verbal performance to match any of the great victories he won on the canvas. That is the great tragedy of Ali’s illness – it robbed us of the possibility that the great man’s words would do to the likes of Reagan, Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney what his fists did to Liston, Frazier, Foreman and Norton.

http://www.veteranstoday.com