Ali To Explain War To Muslims

WENN | 12/21/01

[kattracks]

Dec 21, 2001 (WENN via COMTEX) -- Former boxing heavyweight MUHAMMAD ALI is to appear in a short film telling the world that America's war on terrorism is not a war against Islam or Arabs.

The move was announced by JACK VALENTI, president of the MOTION PICTURE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, at a press conference yesterday (20DEC01).

The PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT (PSA) will be the first production by Hollywood's 9-11 committee, formed after the 11 September (01) attacks on America, and will be translated into various languages for audiences in the Middle East, Pakistan and other Muslim countries.

Further PSAs - which will be made by cable TV channel STARZ! in conjunction with the ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE and Cleveland's BROKAW INC - will urge America to be tolerant toward Arab-Americans. They will be run on satellite and cable TV channels.

The video featuring sports legend Ali, who controversially converted to Islam in the early 1960s, should be available for distribution within the next couple of months. (KW/WNWCCB/CPT)

(c) 2001 WORLD ENTERTAINMENT NEWS NETWORK. All global rights reserved. 

[irishjuggler]

Imagine the effect this public service announcement will have:

Islamist #1: The plan is in its final phase. We will bring death and destruction to the infidel. Allah be praised!

Islamist #2: Wait, my brother! I was at the cinema last night and the great Ali said...

Islamist #1: Who?

Islamist #2: The great Ali, the Muslim boxer who brought the infidel to his knees three decades ago.

Islamist #1: Oh, ok.

Islamist #2: Anyway, the great Ali says that Allah is on the side of America this time.

Islamist #1: Really?

Islamist #2: The great Ali says that America is the friend of Islam now.

Islamist #1: Gee, I did not know that. This changes everything. I think I'll apply for a job at that new American hamburger restaurant instead of blowing it up.

[Little John]

.... The punch drunk Louis Farrahkhan devotee Ali can pound sand. ....

Actually, I believe Clay was attracted by the Black Muslim founder ex-con Elijah Muhammed and then pretty much handled by Malcolm X's folks until Elijah and Fruit Loop Louie had Malcolm killed. There is really very little about religion involved with American Black Muslims ...... what is involved is raw power and fear and thuggery with a very thin veneer of phony devotion.

Clay was a coward and it is a pity but not surprising to see him now used by the likes of Jack Valenti and the liberal Hollywood powers.

[AmishDude]

Hasn't the Nation of Islam been discredited by Muslim scholars? Isn't Ali a non-Muslim in the eyes of most of Islam?

[Little John]

I remember reading that actual Muslims didn't recognise Black Muslims years ago ..... but that was before the rise in anti-Americanism among the world's Islamic folks. I also think that the non-black Muslims still look unfavorably towards even African blacks who have been Muslims for generations. I'm not an expert on this topic but did grow up during the time of Elijah and Malcolm X and lived right around the corner from an early assination attempt on Malcolm X.

[KantianBurke]

ping! thought u might be interested

[soapboxsallie]

Ali isn't a member of the (Black) Nation of Islam. He is an Orthodox Muslim. Orthodox Muslims do not recognize or claim affiliation with the (Black) Nation of Islam.

[rockfish59]

i heard him and clinton are going to start a new baseball team:

THE L.A. DRAFT DODGERS

[AmishDude]

I thought he was tied to Elijah Mohammed at one point. Was he with NoI at one time?

[A CA Guy]

Better edit that puppy. For time!

[soapboxsallie]

No. Ali is a Muslim, not a member of the Black Nation of Islam. (I consider him a coward for refusing to enter the Army when drafted.) The Black Nation of Islam, at least at one time, had strange teachings about the afterlife; rather, they believed that they should have their "heaven" here on earth. Clay supported them politically, but he does not believe like they do (or did).

[ChadGore]

Why aren't we using his star power to bitch at hate mongering mosques instead of the victim of the attack ?

We've got the right weapon, but we're pointing it in the wrong direction.

[abandon]

I consider him a coward for refusing to enter the Army when drafted.

A coward? No way. The cowards fled the country and then came back when it was safe.

Ali acted in the finest traditions of the American Revolution. He believed in something, held his ground, stood firm against the powers-that-be, and accepted the consequences that followed. He ended up going to jail, ending his boxing career for all he knew.

Time and time again many of us say we would go to jail rather than do this or that thing the government would have us do. Most of us are never asked to put up or shut up. Ali put up which gave him the right not to have to shut up.

I look forward to hearing what he has to say. (And the fact that he is not physically able to say it like the rest of us can, shouldn't matter. If it did, Stephen Hawking would have been wheeled into a nursing home a long time ago.)

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Is Ali planning to do a few ethnic jokes to warm up the crowd like he usually does?

[soapboxsallie]

Ali hid behind a religion that advocates killing infidels (again, read the qur'an!), and the Viet Cong were infidels to him. He could have gone and killed infidels. He choose to hide behind Islam. He is - or at least was - a coward AND a hypocrite. (By the way, Ali - when in his "prime" as a Heavyweight boxer - was and is the greatest Heavyweight boxer that has ever lived. In the Ring, he truly was and will probably remain "the greatest" boxer in history in his weight division.)

[abandon]

Ali hid behind a religion that advocates killing infidels (again, read the qur'an!), and the Viet Cong were infidels to him. He could have gone and killed infidels. He choose to hide behind Islam.

Wait a second. If the Qur'an allows the faithful to go out and kill infidels, how was Ali "hiding behind Islam" by not going to Vietnam to kill infidels?

Are you saying that any Muslim who does not go out on the street and starts to shoot infidels is a hypocrit? Is a Jew who does not keep Kosher a hypocrit?