Muhammad Ali, the magnificent heavyweight champion whose fast fists and irrepressible personality transcended sports and captivated the world, has died. He was 74.
Muhammad Ali, who died today, made an impact wherever he went. In death, his words may claim one more opponent.
In December last year, he came out swinging against Donald Trump, after the White House hopeful's incendiary remarks about Muslims.
Ali, one of America's best-known Muslims, defended his religion as one of peace and criticized those who mischaracterize Islam for personal gain, in a statement aimed at the Republican presidential frontrunner.
"We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda," he said in a statement first released to NBC News. "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."
While the statement didn't name Trump, it was an obvious broadside against the billionaire: It is titled "Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States," a plan Trump shared earlier that month.
In his statement, Ali called on politicians to use their platforms to educate Americans on Islam.
"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," he said.
Image 1 of 16: World heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is shown trying to evade kicks by wrestler Antonio Inoki in 1976.
Ali also repudiated the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
"I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world," he said. "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion."
His statement wasn't the first time Ali felt he had to come to the defence of his religion.
By chance, he had scheduled an interview with Reader's Digest on Sept. 11, 2001, which he decided to go through with despite the terrorist attacks that morning.
"[F]or several hours the room was mostly quiet as the terrible events unfolded. He stared silently at the big-screen television while the World Trade Center buckled, and crumbled. And then Ali began to talk," Howard Bingham, a friend of Ali's, reported at the time.
From that interview:
"Bingham: Tell us your reaction to the attacks this morning. Ali: Killing like that can never be justified. It's unbelievable. I could never support hurting innocent men, women and children. Islam is a religion of peace. It does not promote terrorism or killing people."
In the 9/11 interview, Ali said that "there's not half the trouble" being Muslim in America since he first accepted the religion decades ago.
And when Bingham asked how he felt about other religions, Ali replied with a metaphor: "Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams. They have different names, but all contain water. Religions have different names but all contain truth."
Trump and Ali had already been linked in the news that month.
After President Barack Obama said in a address to the nation that "Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbours, our co- workers, our sports heroes," Trump took to Twitter to ask: Who?
The Washington Post's Matt Bonesteel noted: "We're a full-service shop here at The Washington Post, so here are some Muslim sports heroes, including a couple with whom Trump has been photographed."
First up was . . . Muhammed Ali.
In fact, on Facebook earlier last year, Trump himself posted a vintage photo with "my friend Muhammad Ali". Memory isn't everything with for Trump. He tweeted his tribute to the great boxer, clearly forgetting Ali had given him a drubbing.
Muhammad Ali is dead at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!
