Still mourning the death of Muhammad Ali, the niece of assassinated black leader Martin Luther King Jr. says she believes that the great boxer went to Heaven despite the fact that he converted to Islam when he was still a young man.
"Some may question my prayer that I'll see Mr. Ali in Heaven. Yet God is ever merciful and judges the human heart. Mr. Ali is subject to the same grace and mercy that all humans seek," Alveda King, a minister who became a representative at the Georgia House of Representatives, writes on her blog.
Ali, formerly known as Cassius Clay, died at 74 on June 3 after a 32-year battle with Parkinson's disease.
"May we pray for the peace of his family, his many admirers and his critics. We pray that Muhammad Ali be remembered not only as a man who won in a boxing ring, but who tirelessly waged war on the battlefield for justice," King says.
She says she first met Ali in the 1960s at the Fair Housing rally led by her dad, Rev. A.D. King, who was a pastor at Zion Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Her dad and Martin Luther were Baptist preachers and civil rights leaders.
King says Ali was a headliner at the Kentucky Open Housing Movement and made a lasting mark in and outside the boxing ring.
"Even though he was a contentious objector of the Vietnam War, he always loved America," she writes.
Like Malcolm X, who became a Muslim, King says, "Ali also embraced that understanding as well as a love for 'The Beloved Community' that my Uncle and Dad proclaimed during their lifetimes."
The boxer was raised in a Christian home but converted to Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali partly "because he objected to the Western characterization of Jesus Christ."
"Yet, I believe in my heart that the Christian message that he learned from my uncle, Martin Luther King, and Daddy A. D. was impacting him, too," King says.
For her, "Ali was not only a great boxer, but also a great man; a man of character, integrity and faith. He loved his God, his family and the world. Yet, he was a very complex personality; and like everyone, was subject to human failings."
King describes Ali as a "fierce fighter who fought many battles, both in the ring and in his personal life."
Despite his debilitating disease, Ali carried himself with dignity, she says.
"Perhaps best remembered for being a great boxing champion, Ali will be remembered for coining the phrase, 'Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee.' The world has lost a great fighter and champion for justice," King writes.
Evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Bill Graham, for his part recalls that his father and Ali met for the first time in 1979.
After their meeting, Ali said, "I've always admired Mr. Graham. I'm a Muslim and he's a Christian, but there is so much truth in the message he gives, Americanism, repentance, things about government and country–and truth. I always said if I was a Christian, I'd want to be a Christian like him."
