The Trials of Muhammad Ali Page #10

some other justice or equality.

Well, I think everybody's

looking for truth.

Everybody's trying

to find himself.

People sit back now

in their old age...

and reflect on the crossroads of their life.

"Did I make the right choices?"

Muhammad Ali stood fast and

never denied what he stood for.

The first time that

I understood the importance

of who my father was,

I was around three years old.

We had to be lifted out some way

of this massive crowd.

People were crying. They were on their

knees. They had their hands crossed.

In a strange sort of way,

I don't think that he

totally transcended boxing...

until he went back to boxing,

until he went back

on that platform.

This is an incredible scene.

The place is going wild.

Muhammad Ali has won!

Muhammad Ali has won!

Naturally when you're young,

you want your father

all to yourself.

My father

would go off on trips,

going to China or Libya

or wherever,

and I would cry.

He said to me one time,

"You know, Hana, I'm your daddy,

but I'm also the daddy

to the world."

And I said, "You're not my daddy.

You're Muhammad Ali."

Whenever he would leave,

he was Muhammad Ali.

I'll always gonna

be one black one...

who got big

on your white televisions,

on your white newspapers,

on your satellites...

and 100% stay with

and represent my people.

That was my purpose,

and that's why I'm happy.

I'm here, and I'm

showing the world...

that you can be here and still

free and stay yourself...

and get respect from the world.

When Elijah Muhammad died in

'75,

the decision of the leadership was to

name Wallace Muhammad, Elijah's son,

as the new leader.

We've arrived here.

The trip was successful.

He began to change the Nation to

something more akin to traditional Islam.

Less attention

to black nationalism.

Less attention to race.

Muhammad Ali became

a follower of Wallace Muhammad.

Most members

went along with them at first.

And then eventually, people

in the Nation convinced

Louis Farrakhan

to break away...

and reform Elijah Muhammad's

race-oriented version.

And that's been that way

ever since.

In the early days of the religion,

they have black separatism.

In those days,

you were the devil.

The white man was the devil.

That's right.

Ali was constantly evolving,

constantly growing...

from the narrow view...

of the Nation of Islam

in its infancy...

to the broad universal view...

of Islam

in its fullest development.

That's Ali.

I'm a Muslim,

and I'm against

killing, violence,

and all Muslims are against it.

I think the people should know

the real truth about Islam.

And I wouldn't be here

to represent Islam...

if it was really like

the terrorists made it look.

I think that all the people

should know the truth...

and come to recognize the truth

because Islam is peace.

Ali...

he has made more people examine Islam.

And they find that Islam

ain't what the government...

and the enemies of Islam

trying to make it out to be.

Since 9/11,

Islam has acquired so many layers

and dimensions and textures.

When the Nation of Islam was

considered as a threatening religion,

traditional Islam was seen

as a gentle alternative.

And now quite the contrary.

The Nation of Islam is seen

as a tame domestic version...

and traditional Islam is seen

as the threatening thing.

Muhammad Ali occupies

a weird kind of place...

in that shifting

interpretation of Islam.

He'll always be

the greatest fighter ever.

But I just outgrew him.

My father's first marriage

was to Sonji Roi,

and it didn't last long,

about a year.

His second wife,

he had four kids with.

His third wife,

Veronica Porsche, my mother,

he had myself

and my sister, Laila.

And his current wife, Lonnie,

they adopted together

one child.

And my father has two children

by women he was not married to.

So there's nine of us,

and we're one big happy family...

'cause he brought us together

in the summers every year.

Probably drove my mother crazy and

everybody else crazy. We had a ball.

I see him at

certain family events.

It hurts sometimes

to look at him too long.

I can be around for a few minutes

and then I have to walk away.

But then I see

there's a good aura there.

Then I'll penetrate it

with some good memories.

And then I fall in love

with him all over again.

All the wealth

of the universe...

and all the wealth on earth

is equal to mosquitoes...

compared to what you get

in the next life.

Some who know him believe that all those

blows to the head damaged his brain,

that he is no longer

the man he was inside.

He has Parkinson's,

as the world knows.

But he's healthy otherwise.

He is happy being Muhammad Ali.

He enjoys who he is.

He's not in any pain.

He believes that everything

has a purpose and a time.

And, you know,

he's... he's happy.

When you do the right thing, man,

you will prevail at the end.

It's just a matter of you

being out there in the front...

of the people who haven't

caught up with you yet.

When he lit

the Olympic torch in '96,

I felt tears in my eyes.

The greatest of all time!

But to see him carry that,

uh, it was a big-time howdy.

It was a perfect poetic moment.

If anybody should've lit the

torch in any Olympic Games,

it should

have been Muhammad Ali.

In the '60s and '70s,

he was the most

recognizable face in the world.

We created a symbol.

Muhammad Ali has long since

been supplanted...

by what we believe he is.

One more time!

Who's the champ of the world?

Muhammad Ali!

There are so many

ways of looking at him...

that have only to do with us...

and have nothing

to do with him.

When Muhammad Ali

took that stand...

- That was a hell of a stand.

- It certainly was.

And my father was

always more than a boxer.

To me, he's the eighth

wonder of the world.

That's the one title

I'm waiting for.

Muhammad Ali...

the eighth wonder of the world.

I love you, champ.

You're my soul and my heart.

Only brother I got.

Love you.

I love you. Peace.

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