[Salman]

Who can forget the boxer, Mohammed Ali, who refused to be drafted because he said pacifism was required of him as a follower of "the religion of peace."

Not exactly. Ali said "No Vietcong ever called me a nigger" and that he had no quarrel with them. He naver claimed to be a religious pacifist.

[07055]

I don't have any books on Ali to contradict what you are saying. However, several Ali biographies on the web (and my memory) put it this way:

"Citing his Islamic faith, Ali refused to serve in the U.S. military during the war in Vietnan..."

"I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong." —refusing military induction based on religious grounds (1966)