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Ali Asked to Film Public Announcement Explaining U.S. Foreign Policy
NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A Hollywood entertainment industry group is recruiting Muhammad Ali to film a public service announcement explaining U.S. policy to Muslims in the Middle East,
The New York Times reported in its Sunday edition.
The former three-time heavyweight champion, who joined the Nation of Islam in the 1960s and refused to serve in the U.S. military when drafted during the Vietnam war, has been asked to film a one-minute spot designed to be aired on international networks, the newspaper said.
Ali's spokeswoman, Jill Siegel, told the Times that Ali "definitely wants to do that" but said that he was waiting for the details of the project before making an agreement.
An entertainment industry group that has contributed to the war effort, loosely called Hollywood 9/11 and overseen by the Motion Picture Association of America, would produce the segment, the newspaper said.
The announcement would be designed to air in several translations over networks like Al-Jazeera, the Middle East Broadcasting Center and the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, but the stations have not yet been contacted by the Hollywood group, the Times said.
"Ali will hopefully be able to convey the idea that Muslims in America lead a free life, practice their religion in a form in which they choose to practice it," Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, told the
Times.
Valenti told the newspaper that the announcement's second point would be that "It's not a war against Islam. It's a war against murderers who kill innocent people."
While an editor at Al-Jazeera told the Times that the network would consider running such an announcement, Fadi Ismail, the editor for current affairs for the London-based Middle East Broadcasting Center, said it was not clear his network would.
Ali's participation in such an announcement may be difficult. The former champion suffers from Parkinson's syndrome, which produces severe tremors in his hands and legs. He has declined many public appearances over the years and has difficulty in speaking clearly or audibly.
Ali, who will turn 60 next month, is a high school graduate, who admittedly is barely able to read and write. In the past, he has simply repeated statements that have been written to him by others or left public speaking to his fourth wife, Yolanda.
The former boxer changed his name from Cassius Clay when he joined the old Nation of Islam, an African-American religious sect that practiced a distortion of Islam. When sect leader Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, his son, Warith Deen Mohamed, discarded most of his father's teachings and embraced mainstream Islam.
Ali's understanding of U.S. foreign policy and past attempts at international diplomacy have been mixed.
In 1980, he worked briefly as a roving ambassador for President Jimmy Carter's attempt at a world boycott of the Olympic Games that year in Moscow to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Ali was snubbed by several African heads-of-state, and most African countries sent athletes to the Games.
A decade ago, Ali traveled to Baghdad before the start of the Persian Gulf War. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein met the former champion and released a few Western hostages.
Ali, who lives on a secluded farm in Berrien Springs, Michigan, still maintains a hectic travel schedule.
He recently visited "Ground Zero" in lower Manhattan, the site of the ruins of the World Trade Center and condemned the deadly September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The announcement comes just days before the premiere of the movie, "Ali", which is based on part of the life of the boxer.
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