Martin Luther King: When Muhammad Ali Joined "Black Muslims" He Became "What We Are Fighting Against"
So the media has decided to drag out Muhammad Ali to denounce Trump as a bigot. That's a great plan. Let's ask Martin Luther King about it.
"When Cassius Clay joined the Black Muslims and started calling himself Cassius X he became a champion of Racial Segregation and that is what we are fighting against. I think perhaps Cassius should spend more time proving his boxing skill and do less talking," Martin Luther King said.
How "Islamophobic" of King.
Of course Ali's Black Muslim group at the time, The Nation of Islam, was a vile racist and anti-Semitic organization. It still is. It claims white people were created by a mad scientist and that UFOs are going to come to earth to kill all the white people.
Ali eventually left the Nation of Islam, but not before making racist statements, endorsing Nation of Islam terror and stating, "I either have to obey the laws of the land or the laws of Allah."
And who can forget this great moment.
Sugar Ray Robinson recounts a conversation from this era that nicely captures the nation’s ethos. As he tells it, Robinson invited the new champ down to Jamaica to serve as a celebrity trainer at a Robinson fight. One night, he and his wife, Millie, were sitting poolside with Ali and his new wife, Sonji, when a shooting star passed through the heavens. Upon seeing it, Ali leaped up and shouted, without a hint of irony, “The white man is destroying the world.”
He explained to Robinson that only Allah and his Messenger, Elijah Muhammad, could save the world from destruction and pleaded with him to join the saved. As an incentive, Ali continued, the Messenger was prepared to lay $700,000 on him, one dollar from each Muslim in America.
Robinson was unimpressed. He told a chagrined Ali that he would not join the Nation of Islam for $7 million. “You know your slogan – ‘The white man is a devil, the white devils’ – that’s not right. You can’t live in this world hating people,” said Robinson. He reminded Ali that he was a Christian: “All the Christian religions preach love for your fellow man.”
Trotting out Muhammad Ali to accuse Trump of bigotry is like bringing out the KKK to Tolerance Week.