‘Ali Belts Zionism’ — the story of Muhammad Ali’s support for the Palestinians
As with the ‘Santa Clausification’ of Martin Luther King over the years, so the Santa Clausification of Muhammad Ali has served to elide from his life and legacy, almost completely, the man’s radical consciousness and the positions he took based upon it.
We are all familiar, of course, with Ali’s stand in opposition to the US imperialist War in Vietnam, and of how he sacrificed the prime years of his boxing career in taking this stand. He became a worldwide symbol of defiance against the injustice perpetuated by his government abroad and a champion of the black liberation struggle at home.
In words that will ring powerfully forever, this is what he said at the time:
I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality.
If I thought the war [in Vietnam] was…
