What Muhammad Ali meant to American Arabs, and me, a personal remembrance of Ali’s impact on the lives of American Arabs during several encounters from his beginnings in the boxing profession from Cassius Cay to Muhammad Ali and his conversion to Islam, to his support of the building of Mosques and Islam in the 1970s, and the excitement American Arab families felt when he boxed.
A look at how Muhammad Ali impacted the lives of American Arabs and what his life meant from the perspective of columnist and author Ray Hanania
#MuhammadAli #AudioPodcast
Column Audio podcast of Ray Hanania’s weekly column about the significance of Heavyweight boxing championMuhammad Ali (Mohammed Ali, Cassius Clay) to the American Arab, Palestinian and Muslims community, and to the author. This audio column, 11 minutes long, is the extended version of columns published at Al Jazeera English, and the Southwest News Newspaper group.
What Muhammad Ali meant to American Arabs, and me, a personal remembrance of Ali’s impact on the lives of American Arabs during several encounters from his beginnings in the boxing profession from Cassius Cay to Muhammad Ali and his conversion to Islam, to his support of the building of Mosques and Islam in the 1970s, and the excitement American Arab families felt when he boxed.
Published June 9, 2016.
The column presents a historic overview of Ali’s career and its impact on the American Arab community.
Click here to listen to the audio podcast.
Or use the audio player here:
Click here to read the Al Jazeera English column.
Muhammad Ali in 1976 meeting the Sheik of Sharja, UAE Sultan Mohammad Bin al-Qasimi. To read that story, click here.
1976 the Sheik of Sharja, UAE Sultan Mohammad Bin al-Qasimi visits one of Chicago’s first southside mosques
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
Click here to send Ray Hanania email.
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