NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar drew a distinction between the Muslim faith and the heinous acts committed by the Islamic State (IS) in a recent interview.
The 67-year-old converted to Islam while a student at UCLA, and said that the rape, murder, and persecution of religious minorities by IS is not in keeping with the faith.
"When I first became a Muslim, we were under the radar, no Muslims had done anything crazy, we stayed under the radar," he told MSNBC. "Most Muslims live a peaceful and prosperous life here in America. And then 9/11 came and all of that changed."
While some pundits have blamed Middle Eastern terrorism on "radical Islam," the former star said that the terrorists are not practising Islam.
"It can be difficult but I think now there is more and more understanding of how this process happens, especially when you can make parallels to things that happen in America," Abdul-Jabbar continued.
"Like the Ku Klux Klan saying they are the 'Christian Knights' of the Ku Klux Klan, right, and they do not practice Christianity in any way."
The former athlete also used the Catholic Church's crusades in the Middle and Late Ages as examples of mass murder conducted in the mane of religion.
"You can see that any group can do this," he said.
"There is an article in yesterday's New York Times about the first crusade, and how the first people they sacked were Jews living in Europe, they devastated them, took all their wealth and kept on the way to the holy land.
"So people use that as an excuse," he said, comparing religion to a scapegoat.
"It is not an excuse, it is no excuse, and oppressing one group means that we have to look out — all groups have to get together to fight that type of oppression, because we all should be free."
