MUHAMMED ALI received yet another award of some sort recently; he's accumulated a room full of plaques and trophies, all deserved. Ali has always stood for religious tolerance and freedom, racial tolerance and freedom, and, of course, civil disobedience, for his refusal to be inducted into the military in 1967 and fight in viet nam.
In 1967, Ali was widely reviled as a traitor. Forty five years later, americans, even conservative ones, have accepted the viet nam war as a disastrous mistake, and Ali has regained his status as a hero. Such is the power of reflection.
Muhammed Ali was not alone is protesting and resisting the viet nam war. Hundreds of thousands of others opposed to the war will not recieve any award, and maybe they should.
Ali might come in handy about now. He undoubtedly finds anti islamic cinematic propaganda repulsive, as most people do, but he probably would condemn equally any irrelevant violence associated with it, as most people do.
Ali probably is not very favorably inclined towards the wars in iraq and afghanistan. He might even believe that the world trade center was atacked by a gang of thugs, rather than a nation, a religion, or a concept. Maybe he would've advised apperhending and bringing to justice the thugs themsevles, rather than abstractly declaring war on a concept (terrorism).
Ironic, that a man who made his living and reputation fighting should staunchly oppose war on religious grounds. But we'll take what we can get.
Bb
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