The Trials of Muhammad Ali Page #7

what it's coming to be...

and this is what

it's shaping up to be.

I'd like to ask you

why you're still a Muslim...

since it's a far-gone conclusion

that the Muslim... Muslims...

or two or three...

I don't know which...

did assassinate Malcolm X.

Anybody that'd

assassinate anybody...

or anybody that carry

weapons are not Muslims.

A Muslim

wouldn't carry a weapon,

and a Muslim wouldn't

assassinate nobody.

Muslims have always been

under surveillance all our lives.

You see, Elijah Muhammad has

taught us about Big Brother.

Brother Government

was always watching us...

to find anything they can to

put these Muslims down or out.

They're there

waiting for that moment.

I did a lot

of those spots with Ali.

He got exposure, being free.

And away from being coached,

I just watched him grow up

to become a man.

Well, I would say Black Power would be

the same thing to me that White Power is,

but leave out the brutality.

Like this is White Power...

your own schools,

your airports, your jet planes.

Being independent

and not dependent on others.

Building your own houses,

factories and hospitals.

I think that he's teaching the black people

to hate white, and I think that's very wrong.

I was opposed to his views

before he came here,

and I still am

opposed to his views...

because I feel

if he wants American rights,

then he should assume

responsibility of the draft.

Somebody would

come out of nowhere...

and say, "You draft-dodger

n*gger, go home."

Well, he didn't

like that at all.

I said, "We have to do this

for a living, man.

Don't worry about what people say about you.

You got to keep going."

And then he'd talk back

at me and says,

"You're not out there getting embarrassed.

I'm out there getting embarrassed.

What would you do

if somebody did that to you?"

I'm not gonna help nobody get

something that Negroes don't have.

If I'm gonna die, I'll die now

right here fighting you.

You my enemy.

My enemy is the white people,

not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese.

You my opposer

when I want freedom.

You my opposer

when I want justice.

You my opposer

when I want equality.

You won't even stand up for me in

America for my religious beliefs,

and you want me

to go somewhere and fight,

but you won't even stand up

for me here at home.

The exiled

years was the worst years...

of me and Ali's life.

In Islam we

feel like we're being attacked unjustly.

We feel like there's

a trial period for us,

and if we stand

on righteousness and truth,

God gonna bring us through it.

And that's the way I saw Ali.

I suffered with my brother. He suffered.

I suffered. We're like that.

I felt the way he felt.

I share my brother's pain.

I share his...

You got to forgive me.

I'm very emotional

when it comes to this.

He paid the price.

He did what he had to do.

He's the champ.

The country was beginning

to pull apart.

This was a time when the

ideals of rebellion were spreading.

Urban insurrections and violence were

popping out in cities across the country.

Violence is a part

of America's culture.

It is as American

as cherry pie.

America taught the black people

to be violent.

We will use that violence to rid

ourselves of oppression if necessary.

When the white race

attack the black people,

you don't ask us what's our

religion or what's our belief.

You just start whupping

black heads.

They don't say are you a Catholic,

are you a Baptist,

are you a black Muslim,

are you a Martin Luther King follower,

are you with Whitney Young.

They just go...

There is no need for us to go

anywhere and fight for democracy.

We working for our liberation,

and it's gonna be in this country.

And what we gonna say

across this country,

from Muhammad Ali to a little

black boy in Cardozo High School,

"Hell, no. We won't go."

Hell, no!

We won't go!

I'm not here to talk and

say I don't agree with Stokely.

I don't agree with Rap Brown.

We're all black people who are fighting

for freedom, justice and equality.

Everybody have their approach.

One man believe in integrating.

One day we all be white, he say.

Look like white people after 200 years.

One believes that education

and politics will solve it.

One believes shooting and looting and

burning up the country will solve it.

One man believes

integration will solve it.

And we believe separation,

somewhere to ourselves, will solve it.

You were quoted as saying on one occasion,

"All whites are devils."

- But that's not true, is it?

- Elijah Muhammad teaches us...

that God told him

that all whites are devils.

Well, God was wrong

on that occasion, wasn't he?

- You don't...

- I believe every word of it.

- But you don't actually believe that all

whites are devils. - I believe every word...

Yes, sir. I believe

everything he preach.

- I mean, I just...

- You said "all," didn't you?

- Yeah. I'm trying... - I really believe

that all white people are devils.

I'm not gonna be no phony.

I done gave up $10 million in fighting.

I'll go to jail for five years.

And you think I'm gonna get on this

TV show and deny what I believe?

- No.

- I believe every bit of it.

From my point of view,

what Elijah Muhammad is doing

to you is diseasing your mind.

And you have the nerve

to be on a TV show...

and look at me

like I'm wrong...

for saying,

Elijah Muhammad is poisoning you...

by telling you

that we're your enemies.

And I feel it

and see it every day.

And every black man watching

this show know you our enemies,

and you have the nerve

to stand up here...

and say Elijah Muhammad

is poisoning my mind.

He cannot teach us that you our enemy.

You taught us.

And Ali liked intimidating you,

pissing you off.

He loved that.

That's his comfort zone.

And when you're

in your comfort zone,

nobody in the world

can penetrate you,

and you can be

who you wanna be.

I'd like to start off by saying,

As-salaam alaikum.

Wa alaikum.

Ooh. You all...

I didn't know you all knew that up here.

Within a year of this,

he was a much more

attractive character.

And once you

find out who you are,

then you're start saying,

"I am the greatest."

To those people who think

that I lost so much...

by not taking the step,

I haven't lost one thing.

I have gained a lot.

Number one...

- - Number one,

I have gained a peace of mind.

Yeah!

I have gained a peace of heart.

I now know

that I'm in content...

with Almighty God himself.

And there are those who are seeking...

to equate dissent

with disloyalty.

It is my hope...

that every young man

in this country...

who finds this war objectionable

and abominable and unjust...

would file

as a conscientious objector.

And no matter what you think...

of Mr. Muhammad Ali's religion,

you certainly have

to admire his courage.

Our great leaders like

Martin Luther King, to bump him off.

And when the white man can

just bump us off like nothing,

then what chance

does the common man have?

He just don't care.

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