Muhammad Ali
Legendary heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali – born Cassius Clay in Louisville, Kentucky – converted to Islam in the 1960s and was a devout Muslim.
In a December 2015 statement, he spoke out against extremism, saying: “True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion… Our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is.”
Ali died in June 2016 at the age of 74.
