LogFAQs > #888948779

These are hard times to be a Muslim in America. President Donald Trump regularly makes non-inclusive comments such as Islam hates us, even though a religion does not hate. As a consequence of right-wing attitudes ordinary people suffer: a young 14-year-old African American school boy named Ahmed Mohamed was arrested and thrown out of school when his teacher thought his homemade clock was a bomb; a 17-year-old girl called Nabra Hassanen was recently raped and murdered by Martinez Torres in Virginia; a female university professor who teaches Women and Islam was aggressively manhandled and thrown out of a plane recently, as she happened to be a Muslim. All such happenings impact the health and wellbeing of ordinary Muslims and many others around the world who are constantly hearing about these and other cruel injustices. A recent study shows that in America today, Muslims in particular face many psychological pressures and problems due to them constantly being unjustly labelled as terrorists.

Yet, through the smoke of sensationalist media headlines, we still have those positive moments that give us hope. On the evening of October 15 I had the privilege of living one such moment, when I met Khalilah Camacho Ali (also known as Belinda), the wife of the legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.

A radiant African-American, Khalilah has an accent almost identical to that of Muhammad Ali, but her roots go back to South Asia, as her great-great grandfather was an imam from Karachi. In the Pakistani home of Sohail Kiani, the former vice-president of Merrill Lynch in Singapore, and his American wife Doreen, Khalilah began her introduction to a select audience who were mesmerised by her intimate stories and memories of The Greatest.
She said that when she met Muhammad Ali, he had just won his gold medal in the light heavyweight division in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, at the young age of 18. She was only 10 years old. In his famous cocky style, Muhammad Ali said, Im going to be the heavyweight champion of the world before I hit 21 so get your autograph! So he gave me his name. Khalilah said, When he signed, his name, Cassius Marcellus Clay. I tore up the paper and threw it on the floor. This is a Roman name! And do you know what the Romans did to us? They enslaved us. You need to change your name! In fact, I was really into Islam and admired Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as my role model he had the most gentle, simple and compassionate character so I said to Cassius, Go and get a Muslim name. She recounted, He was upset. But he couldnt wait. I want to be a Muslim like her. So he went to Elijah Muhammad.

Elijah Muhammad, who led the Nation of Islam Movement, conceived of a new name for Ali. As Khalilah recalled, He gave him Cassius X, so he said, No, no, I dont want to be Cassius. I want a Muslim name. So he named him Ali (after Khalilahs father) and added Muhammad, after the name of the Prophet (pbuh). Muhammad Ali came back to me and by this time I was no longer 10. I was 13, she said smiling naughtily. The audience hooted. He came back and said to me, I changed my name to Muhammad Ali. I told him, Now go and live that great name.
---

I am Kely.
http://i.imgur.com/bjGE3Tc.jpg