The passing of a global icon
Muhammad Ali
who transcended
race and nationality was a citizen of
the world
The way people in the social media shared news of Muhammad Alis death yesterday morning is an ample proof of how people all over the world loved this greatest boxer of all time. After suffering from Parkinsons syndrome from 1984, he died in a hospital at the age of 74. But describing Ali only by his boxing prowess would be too narrow: he went beyond the boxing ring to become one of the greatest personalities of the contemporary times. The three-time world heavyweight boxing champion became an international icon not only by his magical sporting ability, but also by his charismatic personality with sunny humanity and a very unconventional attitude towards the establishment. These made him both controversial and endearing to people all around the globe.
He punched his opponents as much by his fist in the ring as he criticised people for what he did not like in them by his mouth. I dont have to be who you want me to be; Im free to be who I want. He made that categorical statement the morning after he won his first heavyweight title. It defined him what a man he was in his every aspect of life, including the way he performed in the ring.
The superstar drew the ire of the American establishment for his unusual and daring religious, political and social stances. His refusal to go to Vietnam War, conversion to Islam and changing his name Cassius Clay did not go well with the establishment. He was bold to express what probably only he could do: Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?
Thus his personality was more than the sum of his athletic gifts. But the establishment could not ignore this sporting genius as he was invited to light the Olympic caldron in Atlanta in 1996 a moment when he was trembling and nearly mute. In 2005, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Freedom to Muhammad Ali in a White House ceremony, calling him the greatest boxer of all time. It is an irony that the man who once was vilified by the establishment became its symbolic figure.
This globally loved and admired icon came to Bangladesh in 1978. At that time Bangladesh honoured him handing him the Bangladeshi passport making him its citizen. But Muhammad Ali who transcended race and nationality was a citizen of the world.
