Muhammad Ali’s official conversion to Islam in 1964 was a watershed event in his extraordinary life. Ali’s choice outraged his critics, who remained to allude to him by his real identity, Cassius Clay, for months afterward, prompting him to deny service in Vietnam, a move that cost him the title, career, and solidified his position as an American ideologue. In March 1964, the real reason why Muhammad Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay could be any.
Ali, who expired on June 3, 2016, at the age of 74, gave several explanations for his conversion to Islam. Ali claimed his first meeting with a corner of the street proselytizer in Harlem, as performer Sports Illustrated reporter Jack Olsen’s 1967 book, Black Is Best: The Riddle of Cassius Clay. Ali later informed Olsen that he received it at a Nation of Islam gathering in Miami in 1960 or early 1961 and that it was his maiden gathering.
Why Muhammad Ali Changed His Name From Cassius Clay
The reason why Muhammad Ali changed his name from Cassius Clay, was maybe revealed by Author Jonathan Eig. Jonathan Eig quotes a letter written by Ali to his second wife, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, who’d been wedded to the famed fighter from 1967 until 1976, in his upcoming book Ali: A Life, available in October from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Ali remembers to have seen a caricature in the Nation of Islam periodical, Muhammad Speaks, on the outside of a skating arena in his birthplace of Louisville in the email, that Camacho-Ali claims her ex-husband penned sometime in the late 1960s. The cartoon depicted white slave masters abusing their captives while demanding that people worship Jesus. The idea was that Christianity was the repressive white establishment’s faith. Ali wrote, “I enjoyed that cartoon. It affected me. It was also logical.”
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After confronting Muhammad about his adulterous affairs, Camacho-Ali urged him to draught the letter. She demanded that he clarify why he would have chosen Islam in the very first place. Camacho-Ali tells TIME, “You might be big. However, you are not greater than Allah. You need to do some self-reflection. When people commit adultery, there seem to be consequences.”
Eig claims he paid $600 to Camacho-Ali for the letter. “Ali’s enthusiasm in the Nation Of Islam most likely evolved through time and repeated exposures,” Eig explains. “The action he recounts in the letter picking up the newspaper and reading the cartoon could have been part of a chain of circumstances that influenced him. But that’s the only occasion we know of him writing his account of his brainwashing. It would seem to imply, at the very minimum, that this was a significant turning point in his life.”
Few Final Words
The first commemoration of Ali’s death, according to Camacho-Ali, is another opportunity to honor him, faults and all. “Allah has paved the way to paradise for him,” she says to TIME. “He’s no longer in pain.” I treasure the happy times. There are even more positive aspects than negative aspects. Being a member of that trip was a gift.”
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