In your opinion, was Ali a draft dodger?

[Evil_Meat]

Anyone who believes in this defending your country bull**** excuse to invade other countries is a brainwashed nationalistic drone.

[Basco]

[miniq]

Even if Ali ageed he wouldn't have even seen the front line. Would have been used as a propaganda tool whilst his countrymen go out and die for no good cause.

"dodging the draft" was the right choice

[Marvellous1]

"Dodging" the draft would've meant hiding somewhere and not showing up and staying undercover until end of days. Ali didn't dodge it, he straight told the draft to eff off and took the consequences that came with it.

[Barcham]

Ali was a great in the ring but when it came to defending his country he was a coward.

I didn't know that Vietnam was invading the United States.

[BluesMan]

I didn't know that Vietnam was invading the United States.

I remember the great lie well....'if we don't stop them from invading South Viet Nam,they will be on Cape Cod next'.

Funny,we lost...I live on Cape Cod,and feel pretty safe.

[Weebler I]

The fact of the matter is that Ali's "draft dodging" or whatever you want to call it - did not originally stem from a religious stance. It turned into that. When he was Cassius Clay he failed a draft test - the requirements were then amended because they needed soldiers and suddenly he was OK to go to war.

Now, he was sat on his garden lawn when finding out about this and TV crews and radio etc came up and told him he was going to war. Now, he then came out with the infamous quote "I ain't got no quarrel with them vietcong. No Vietcong ever called me N*****".

However, the religious stance was taken later because it is a legit reason for being conscientious objector. Other people had taken the same stance and were not pulled to court or threatened with jail. So, before all the religious razzledazzle came into play, they actually offered to go to vietnam and do exhibition fights or have some kind of ambassador role ala Jack Dempsey in his time (another one who was accused of draft dodging) - which was declined and also clearly showed that the religious belief stance was not the core of the reason why he didn't want to go.

His initial reason was out of fear and spite. He was afraid of going to war. Black people were reported to be killed in 1:7 ratio in comparison to the white soldiers. Now, further to that, he thought why he as the heavyweight champion should go to war, when he failed the test.

It was after this that Elijah & Herbert Muhammad (probably moreso) started digging into how you could avoid a draft, and religious reasons were one of them. It was then Ali started talking about these things and it really more became a movement for blacks and suppressed rather than a religious movement for Muslims.

I believe this too, he was likely scared to go and I don't blame him.

[12TRIBEsRiSe]

He did the right thing, that defending your country crap is hilarous