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#4. The Eyes Of A Child Changed His Career
One of Ali's most significant moments growing up Muslim in America occurred on September 11th, 2001. As New York was under attack by Osama Bin Laden and his band of Al Qaeda extremists, Ali began to profess his faith and where he stood in the country of his birth for the very first time.
Ali remembers being deeply saddened by the attacks and mourning the loss of life. He truly felt American, but things began to change when he went to school. Everything began to change. Students were encouraged to talk about their feelings and one boy, who sat behind Ali, said, "I think we should go over there and kill them all." The statement, its ignorance and blind hatred stuck with Ali.
Later, Ali would enter the world of professional wrestling and although he was hesitant at first, he eventually accepted the close-minded character role of a Muslim terrorist. Ali would speak in Urdu and admonish America for its past evils, as angry crowds chanted, "USA! USA! USA!"
Much to Ali's chagrin, promoters loved the character. His bookings quadrupled and for the first time ever, Ali found himself on WWE's radar. Still, as an American born Muslim, he was never comfortable with the small minded box greedy and unscrupulous promoters packaged him in.
It all came to a head one evening as Ali wrestled for an independent promotion near his hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Ali saw a blonde haired blue eyed American child in the audience and the boy raised his fist to Ali. The two locked eyes and everything began to change for Ali.
Ali recounts the experience on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia
"I was like, ‘I taught this kid to hate people that look like me.’ It registered to me. I had this flashback to sitting in high school and understanding why that kid stood and said, ‘We’re gonna go there and we’re gonna kill them all.’ He didn’t know any better and I’m teaching that now. I went back. Done. I’m not doing this character now. I’m just Mustafa Ali and if they’re gonna boo me, that’s on them. I’m not doing the terrorist character. I refuse to do it. I never did it from that point on. Obviously [my bookings] dropped."
His bookings dropped initially, but Ali proved that sometimes making the most difficult decisions are the right ones and with time found himself working for the biggest wrestling company in the world.
