Khalilah Camacho Ali, former wife of legendary world boxing champion Muhammad Ali said that Muslim women should follow the values put down in Islam for how they should live and work, not what she called 'Hislam' which is a prejudiced point of view.

Ali was speaking at an event hosted by the Spiritual Chords Foundation, a charitable and social welfare organisation with Muslim ethos run in Johannesburg by social activist Safeeyah Moosa on Saturday. She said that at the age of ten, she was pivotal in convincing Cassius Clay, ambitious aspirant world champion to change his name, eventually marrying him a few years later. She also detailed her role in persuading him to become a conscientious objector and refuse to do military service in the United States' in its lengthy war against Vietnam. In 1967, Ali's heavyweight title was stripped from him after he refused to be conscripted into the US Army.

She later divorced Ali due to his indiscretions but stated she had forgiven him and found peace, as she will detail in her book, which will be released next month.

She stated, "There were a lot of things I had to go through to heal and to forgive, so now my healing is over and I’m ready to share my story."
She further added that it was important to do this for women and girls, whether they were of Muslim origin or not.

She explained how she met Muhammad Ali when she was 10, "This man got onto the podium. He was about 18 years old and his name was Cassius Marcellus Clay. He said: ‘I’m going to be the heavyweight champion of the world before I’m 21, so get your autograph now because I’m going to be famous."

She said that she made fun of his name and tore the paper that he gave her with his name on it, telling him to come back when he had a Muslim name. Ali met her again and proposed to her when she was 16. Then he also decided to adopt the Muslim faith and change his name. They got married in 1967 and parted ways after a couple of years.

She is a karate expert herself and said that, "Bruce Lee was a very important guy. He was a wonderful man and he is so missed. If he had not passed away so soon… he was very interested in Islam at the time. He loved what I said about Islam."

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