Muhammad Ali that year, before converting to Islam after 1961. At age 22, in 1964, he won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset. He then changed his name from Cassius Clay, which he called his "slave name", to Muhammad Ali. He set an example of racial pride for African Americans and resistance to white domination during the Civil Rights Movement. In 1966, two years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali further antagonized the white establishment by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs, and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
Nur Ali Elahi surgeon and medical school dean who has written several books analyzing and elaborating upon this line of thinking. Born with the name "Fatollah", Nur Ali's childhood nickname was "Kuchek Ali". At the age of eleven, he went through a spiritual transformation during an ascetic retreat with his father, who subsequently changed the child's name to "Sayyed Nur Ali". In 1941, while working as an attorney general in Khorammabad, Nur Ali legally changed his family name to "Elahi". After he died in 1974, his sister Malak Jân Nemati (Also known as Malak Jân, Sheikh Jâni and Jâni Jân) assumed responsibility for