“The most significant document in existence of Muhammad Ali”, the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) pointed out in a recent post on its Facebook page, referring to the signed six-page letter of the late boxing legend-activist that’s perhaps the most coveted piece of memorabilia at the ongoing exhibition.
Ali’s rare letter demanding exemption from the Vietnam War is among the 22 artefacts – including signed photographs, felt pennants and original tickets – on display at the Qatar Museums’ (QM) exhibition titled  ‘Muhammad Ali: Tribute to a Legend’ at the eastern gallery on the fourth floor of the MIA.
The landmark letter, which is being exhibited for the first time – on loan – on the 50th anniversary that a 24-year-old first Ali wrote it, was addressed to the US Selective Service Directorate. Penned on August 23, 1966, Ali refused his ‘draft call up’ to the US armed forces to fight in Vietnam and it’s widely regarded as a letter “that changed history”. The three-time world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay, passed away on June 3 at the age of 74.
In 1966, when the reigning heavyweight champion of the world was called up to serve in the US army to fight in the Vietnam War, Ali, who had converted to Islam two years before, refused to enlist on the grounds that his religious beliefs forbade any killing. His decision led to his arrest, prosecution and a jail term of five years in 1967. Not only was Ali fined $10,000, he was also banned from boxing and stripped of his world title apart from being kept away from the ring for more than three years.
“Ali appealed the conviction and spent the next three and a half years talking at universities and Muslim gatherings about his anti-war stance. In 1970, the Supreme Court found that Ali qualified for conscientious objector status and his conviction was quashed,” says a story in the Daily Mail on the historic letter, “Later that year Ali returned to boxing and in 1974, he gained his second world title, beating George Foreman in infamous Rumble in the Jungle fight.”
Some of the excerpts from Ali’s milestone letter are as follows: I have filed with the Local Board a written request to reopen my classification based on accompanying written information presenting facts not considered by the Local Board or the Appeal Board when I was classified which will prima facie justify a change in my classification to that of IV-D, exempting me from all training and service as a minister of religion.
This petition is made to you in order to avoid injustice and unnecessary litigation in the courts which would be burdensome to both me and the Selective Service System. This petition to you gentlemen as the State and National Directors of Selective Service is not made for the purpose of delay but in order that justice may be done by the avoidance of a multiplicity of legal proceedings that will be burdensome to both me and the Selective Service System.
It would be in the best national interest and of justice to all concerned that this matter be determined within the Selective Service System by the Local Board reopening my classification so that my claim for exemption as a minister of religion, which has never before been submitted to the Local Board, may be determined and if necessary the Appeal Boards be given an opportunity to decide whether I am entitled to exemption as a minister of religion as requested in my letter to reopen classification dated August 23, 1966, and addressed to Local Board No. 47, Louisville, Kentucky.