'I am Muhammad Ali': Why the boxing legend changed his name from Cassius Clay
“I am Muhammad Ali, a free name – it means beloved of God, and I insist people use it when people speak to me,” declared the late Muhammad Ali in 1964.
Shortly after the 22-year-old knocked-out Sonny Liston to earn his first world heavyweight championship title, he announced he was converting to Islam and becoming a member of Nation of Islam (NOI). A few weeks after his victory he adopted a Muslim name.
"Cassius Clay is a slave name," he said. "I didn't choose it and I don't want it.'
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According to the Independent, Ali attended his first NOI meeting in 1961 and then later joined the African American Islamic religious movement in hopes of improving the status of African Americans in the U.S.
“Clay began thinking of himself as divine, graced by the power of Allah.”
NOI leader Elijah Muhammad — who would become the surrogate father to Ali — was the one who announced the man formerly known as Cassius Clay was to be called “Muhammad Ali."
Before landing on the name Muhammad Ali, he briefly went by the name Cassius X, a nod to his friend and spiritual mentor Malcolm X.
According to Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith's Blood Brothers, Malcolm X had "magnetized Clay, drawing him toward the inner circle of the Nation."
“Clay began thinking of himself as divine, graced by the power of Allah.”
Though Ali’s managers thought his relationship with the NOI would jeopardize his career, he didn't let that stop him from continuing to grow as a boxer as well as political leader.
Not only did Ali defeat Liston for a second time in 1965 with a first-round knockout, he became a political figure in 1967 for refusing to be drafted into the armed forces during the Vietnam War.
“I ain’t got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me n*gger,” he declared.
Ali was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000, stripped of his heavyweight title and banned from boxing for three years.
“I ain’t got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me n*gger.”
He managed to stay out of prison, and returned to the ring on October 1970, knocking out Jerry Quarry in Atlanta in the third round.
Ali was a political figure to the every end.
After presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump called for a "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States in December 2016, Ali — who was friendly with Trump in years past, and even gave him the Muhammad Ali award at his Celebrity Fight Night XIII in 2007 — had harsh words for the Trump using Islamophobia to further his political gain.
In a public statement called, “Presidential Candidates Proposing to Ban Muslim Immigration to the United States,” Ali said:
We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda. 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.
As a Muslim man, he added, "there's nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world."
"There's nothing Islamic about killing innocent people."
"True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion."
The legendary champion heavyweight boxer and outspoken activist died at the age of 74 on Friday after battling Parkinson's disease for more than 30 years.
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A lover of satirical debate, wine and a good bowl of guac. Originally from Ethiopia, Mariya received a B.A. from Vassar College, where she studied international relations, with a regional focus on the Middle East and concentrations in political science, history and film.
