Muhammad Ali, who died a year ago June 3, is remembered as a boxing legend, an Olympian, a civil rights warrior, a humanitarian, and a trailblazer for Parkinson’s disease awareness.
But one
central part of his identity is missing from the official Ali Instagram and
Twitter feeds: the proud, unapologetic Muslim.
Islam is
conspicuously absent from the Ali brand, which is owned and managed by a New
York–based licensing company that also owns the rights to Marilyn Monroe, Elvis
Presley, and other American superstars. In 2013, Authentic Brands Group paid an
undisclosed amount for Ali’s intellectual property, including troves of photos
and videos, as well as trademarked slogans such as “Float Like A Butterfly,
Sting Like A Bee.”
ABG, as
the licensing company is known, runs the Ali social media accounts. With more
than 2 million Instagram followers, 876,000 Twitter followers, and 11.8 million
Facebook “likes,” the feeds are the main conduit for introducing Ali to a new
generation of Americans coming of age after his death. His Facebook biography
notes "his early relationship with the Nation of Islam," but the role
Islam played in his life stops there. There are black-and-white photos of Ali
visiting a hospital, embracing Nelson Mandela, and standing next to Martin
Luther King Jr. But in the dozens of photos on posts dating back years, there’s not a clue that
“The Greatest” was Muslim, an omission so glaring that it seems deliberate.
