Muhammad Ali and Islam.

Yesterday American boxer Muhammad Ali died aged 74. He was undoubtedly the greatest heavyweight boxer to enter the ring.

As an amateur Ali won gold for the United States at the 1960 Olympics. As a professional he won 56 of his 61 fights including 37 by knockout becoming World Champion in 1964. After losing and then regaining his boxing license Ali regained the World Champion crown in 1974. He was also the father to 9 children and grandfather to numerous grandchildren.

Ideally that is where I would like to end his obituary.

However the coverage around Ali's death has been relentless. CNN in particular yesterday broke away from their wall-to-wall coverage of the US election to provide wall-to-wall coverage of Ali's death. Much on this focused on his political activism and his controversial religious beliefs.

This unfortunately is rather relevant to both the current fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the US' own Black Lives Matter (BLM).

Despite legally changing his name from Cassius Clay Muhammad Ali never converted to any recognised form of Islam and therefore cannot be described as a Muslim. What he did do was join an organisation known as the Nation of Islam which I think is probably best described as a cult.

The Nation of Islam does require that its followers adhere to the five pillars of Islam. Beyond that though the group's belief system is what would be considered by Muslims as blasphemy. And pretty sketchy blasphemy at that.

Devout Muslims like Christians and Jews believe the Biblical book of Genesis to be a truthful account of how the universe and the Earth came into being having been created by God in seven days. God went on to create Adam and Eve and the entire human race is descended from them. The Nation of Islam consider this to be a lie.

Instead the Nation of Islam believe that the Earth is 76 trillion years old. 66 trillion years ago the Black race arrived on Earth aboard spaceships known as "Mother Planes." Having arrived on Earth the original scientists of the Black race built more of these spaceships and used them to create the topography of the Earth as it exists now. This included separating the Moon from the Earth through a giant explosion.

The Nation of Islam believe that the White race was created by the devil Jew Jacob on the Greek island of Patmos. This is where John the Apostle of John of Patmos is believed to have written the Biblical book of Revelations. However the Nation of Islam believe that it was here that Jacob began a 600 year program of eugenics that saw him murder dark skinned children until a light skinned, white race was created.

No explanation of how Jacob came into being is offered. However with him seeming to be the same Jacob who is considered the Father of the Jews in Genesis this appears to be the Nation of Islam implying that the Bible and by extension the Qu'ran were simply made up by this devil race in order to suppress the superior Black race.

Of that superior Black race the Nation of Islam consider 85% of it to be the deaf, dumb and blind masses. A further 10% of the Black race are made up of so-called "Slave Makers" who are constantly trying to enslave the 85%. The remaining 5% are the members of the Nation of Islam and referred to as the "Righteous Teachers." They consider themselves at war with the Slave Makers in an effort to free the minds of the 85%. There is a breakaway faction of the Nation of Islam that calls itself the 5% Nation.

So Muhammad Ali's refusal to fight in the Vietnam war stemmed not from some conscientious objection to violence as a concept. After all as a professional fighter violence was a big part of Ali's life and identity. Instead it stemmed from a belief that as part of the elite 5% of the master race he should not be called upon to fight in a war between the lesser races. Apparently his own father disowned him for this.

The Nation of Islam consider their founder Wallace Fard Muhammad - "The Master" - to be the Mahdi of Islam. The role of the Mahdi is an extremely controversial one within Islam. Although most Muslims believe in the Hadith prophecy of a redeemer of Islam none believe that he will appear until right before Judgement Day where he will join forces with the returning Jewish Messiah to battle the anti-Christ.

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad's declaration of himself as the Madhi led to his Ahmadiyya sect to be declared Non-Muslim heretics in Pakistan and their killing is advocated by large sections of Sunni Islam.

The Master Fard Muhammad also believed himself to be the Jewish Messiah. Although they do not consider him to be the Son of God Muslims consider Jesus to be the Jewish Messiah. As such Fard Muhammad's declaration of Jesus to be a false Prophet and himself to be the true Prophet is pure sacrilege.

The most famous member of the Nation of Islam is probably Malcolm X. However in 1964 Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam in order to convert to Sunni Islam and become a Muslim. It was the Nation of Islam that assassinated Malcolm X in 1965 having tried and failed in an earlier attempt to bomb his car.

In paying tribute to Muhammad Ali yesterday US President Barack Obama spoke about his Muslim faith and lauded him as a champion of racial equality and civil rights. If Obama cannot distinguish between a violent racial supremacist cult like the Nation of Islam and the religion of Islam it goes a long way to explain his support for ISIL.

Likewise with the violent rantings and ravings of the Nation of Islam being considered the only form of Islam by much of Black America it highlights the risk of those whipped up into a frenzy by the Black Lives Matter campaign also falling under the spell of ISIL.

As for Ali himself a number of his children went onto inter-marry with the devils of the White race producing mixed race grandchildren. This included Kaliah Ali who went onto marry Spencer Wertheimer and raise their children as Jewish. In 2012 Muhammad Ali attended his grandson Jacob Ali-Wertheimer's Bar Mitzvah.

So it seems that rather than being a true believer of the Nation of Islam Muhammad Ali seemed to be a genuine kind-hearted man who wanted to do the right thing. Unfortunately in his naivety he allowed himself to be manipulated by some extremely unpleasant people.

To my mind that makes him more of a figure of pity rather than some sort of political champion.

16:40 on 5/6/16 (UK date).