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Donald Trump Slammed For Muhammad Ali Tweet After Making Controversial Remarks Against Muslims

By Christian Savoy
Published on: 06:58 PST, Jun 5, 2016

Donald Trump is facing heavy criticism this week after he sent out a controversial tweet regarding the death of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. As we all know, part of the rhetoric of the presidential hopeful has been based on the repudiation and discrimination against certain minorities. One of those minority groups are the Muslims residing in the United States, whom Trump has assured us are a danger to our country. CNN reported back in December that Trump called for barring all Muslims from entering the U.S.

“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” a campaign press release said.

Donald Trump’s criticism of this religious group has been great and he has previously called for surveillance against mosques and said he was open to establishing a database for all Muslims living in the country. Trump’s remarks at the time were perhaps made in an effort to discredit Barack Obama, after the president talked about Muslim athletes in the U.S. whom he referred to as heroes. President Obama said during an Oval Office address that “Muslim-Americans are our friends and our neighbors, our co-workers, our sports heroes.” Trump responded with the following tweet.

Now, as Uproxx wrote in a recent report, Trump’s tweet in December is haunting him because after the tragic death of the great Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay), the presumptive presidential candidate for the Republican Party shared his grief with the following message.

“Muhammad Ali has died at 74! A truly great champion and a wonderful guy. He will be missed by all!”

And of course, the internet reminded him what he said in December.

Trump, on previous occasions, had called himself a great friend of the boxer. But this could not be further from the truth, especially when Ali spoke against the rhetoric that people like Donald Trump have spewed for years.

“I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world. True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion.

“We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda. They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know that it goes against our religion to try and force Islam on anybody.

“Speaking as someone who has never been accused of political correctness, I believe that our political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people’s views on what Islam really is.”

This could not come at a worse time for Trump because, despite having seemingly earned his place as candidate for president, some might say that he is a hypocrite and his recent tweet seems to show this.

Meanwhile, Trump’s past Muslim comments were criticized by ex-London Mayor, Boris Johnson. According to CNBC, Johnson called Trump’s comments “extraordinary.”

“I thought that was an extraordinary thing for a candidate for the office of President of the United States to say,” Johnson was quoted as saying in an interview with the publication on Saturday, “basically because America as I understand it is built on the ideal of welcoming people irrespective of their race, religion, color or creed.”

Reportedly, septic shock was the cause of Muhammad Ali’s death late Friday night. A public memorial service and funeral procession will be held Friday for Ali in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, where he will be buried.

[Photo by Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images]

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