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American History Homework Twelve Answers - Student One (view source)
Revision as of 12:44, December 12, 2008
, 12:44, December 12, 2008no edit summary
H1. What is your view of whether Muhammad Ali was entitled to a conscientious objection based on Islam?
H1. What is your view of whether Muhammad Ali was entitled to a conscientious objection based on Islam?
First of all, this was not a great war for America. Second, people should retain the right to choose whether or not to be a soldier, especially in a conflict as controversial as Vietnam. However, even if the war was unquestionably right, and if the draft was constitutional,
First of all, this was not a great war for America. Second, people should retain the right to choose whether or not to be a soldier, especially in a conflict as controversial as Vietnam. However, even if the war was unquestionably right, and if the draft was constitutional, Ali was muslim, and had a legitimate reason not to be drafted. Some say he converted to Islam only to get out of the fighting. This may be true, but if someone claims conscientious objection, it ought to be taken very seriously.
Ali was stripped of his title as world heavyweight boxing champion when he refused to be inducted. He was also sentenced to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine for evading the draft. In this one respect I have sympathy with Muhammad Ali: he was persecuted for his religion. Though I was never a boxer, never robbed of a championship, never felt an inclination toward Islam, never opposed military service; though I would have fought in Vietnam if ''I'' had been drafted, and died for a cause that I believed was not entirely worth dying for (or was Vietnam worth the price in lives after all?), I identify with Ali because he was punished for his faith. It is serious when a country will force you to do what you say you must not on account of religion.
And even if he was a pacifist whimp, and the only reason he became muslim was to try and get off the hook, you can not judge what is within a man's heart. We will never know his motive for converting to Islam (until Judgment Day), but inditing him for draft evasion sets a precedent for the government to control men's lives, regardless of their claimed beliefs.
H2. Write about any issue or debate in the lecture, or relating to the period 1945 to 1980:
H2. Write about any issue or debate in the lecture, or relating to the period 1945 to 1980: