The Greatest

The legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali is celebrating his 65th birthday today.

Back in the seventies, he was my childhood hero and he was extremely popular in Egypt because he was black and because he converted to Islam. I think that we have a really fucked up attitude towards blacks. We love respect and sympathize with black icons around the world (Muhammad Ali, Pele, Mandela etc.) yet there is alot of racism in our culture against black people (ask any black person who lived in Egypt). It's also amazing how Islam's image was completely different back then from what it is today.

Sorry about the diversion, back to Muhammad Ali. He was the first man to win the heavyweight title of the world three times and outside the ring, he refused to fight in the Vietnam War, was stripped of his world title and banned from boxing. He was allowed to fight again in 1970 after three years out of the ring and finally regained his title in 1974. He was also a powerful activist for black rights, both in America and around the world. A true hero and one of the iconic figures of the 20th century. As a child my parents would allow me to wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning to watch his fights live on the old black and white TV. Happy birthday :)