Muhammad Ali nicknamed ‘The Greatest’ is no more with us. ‘The Greatest’ passed away on the 3rd June 2016. Muhammad Ali was an American professional boxer with an illustrious career spanning over 21 years during which he became World Heavyweight Boxing Champion three times.
Most of us know Ali as a Boxing Champion but many of us don’t know him as a civil rights activist. Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr in Louisville, Kentucky. On becoming a World Heavyweight Champion in 1964 at the age of 22 Clay converted to Islam, changed his “slave” name to Ali and gave a message of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white domination during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. The American White establishment was further annoyed by Ali when he refused to be conscripted to the US military for reasons of religious belief and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was eventually arrested, found guilty of draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing titles. He successfully appealed in the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned his conviction in 1971. Ali’s objection of American involvement in the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation.
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s syndrome. But being a great and true statesman that he was, he remained active into the early years of the millennium. Ali travelled to Iraq during the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. On November 17, 2002, Muhammad Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace".He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN. On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic Flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Suffering from a respiratory illness Ali was admitted to a hospital in Scottsdale on 2nd June 2016 Though his condition was initially described as "fair", his condition worsened and he died on 3rd June 2016, aged 74, from septic shock.
On his death one of the family spokesman stated that the family “certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world … and they know that the world grieves with him." Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, “Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown.”
Nishit Shah
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