![]() “When he first filed for a draft exemption, it was as a conscientious objector. “I am a member of the Muslims and we don’t go to no wars unless they are declared by Allah himself,” Ali told Chicago Daily News sportswriter Tom Fitzpatrick. Ali cited his religious beliefs against war as the reason he should be exempt from joining the 438,000 American troops in Vietnam. If there was one thing Ali could do better than box, it was talk, and his outspokenness put him at the center of countless arguments about race, religion, politics and war during the turbulent 1960s, particularly after he confirmed his conversion to the Nation of Islam the morning after he defeated Sonny Liston in 1964 to capture the heavyweight belt. ![]() ![]() ![]() A 20-year-old Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) in 1962. ![]()
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