War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was raging in the 1990s and the world first found out about that after several journalists courageously stepped up and broadcasted the suffering live, such as Roy Gutman and Christiane Amanpour.
After the discovery of camps, the then unorganized Federation of US Muslims in the USA decided not to be silent, but to move and organize in order to stop the bloody suffering.
In the summer of 1992, the story titled Task Force Bosnia began, launched by members of the Muslim community in Chicago who decided to speak before the UN publically and talk about the inability of one part of Bosnians who could not defend themselves due to the embargo on the import of weapons.
Bosnia Task Force is the alliance of ten organizations which managed to come to the stage of the UN with the help of several volunteers and request five things:
- To declare the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks a genocide;
- That the UN abolishes the embargo;
- To declare the rape a war crime;
- To preserve the multiethnic and multireligious integrity of BiH;
- To bring the war criminals before the International Court of Justice.
The campaign lasted for three years in total and these five requests were crucial at this time, when it comes to Bosnia Task Force. That was an international issue and the task force was trying to gather world ambassadors to advocate for these issues before the UN.
BTF had four delegates and they needed the fifth one – the crucial one which would be the star and give significance to the complete goal which meant only one thing – to stop the war in BiH.
Alhamdulillah then called Muhammad Ali and his presence evoked great attention, given that he was the biggest boxing star of all times.
Muhammad Ali came to the UN on behalf of people of BiH. He was the symbol of people and managed to earn respect of all those who did not love him.
Muhammad Ali was the symbol of a global citizen, a fighter for human rights, and a global icon with US identity and citizenship.
Only one photo remained from that time: first President of the Presidency of BiH Alija Izetbegović and Muhammad Ali. He was welcomed in the UN headquarters y Muhamed Sacirbey but Ali addressed neither media nor member countries.
Ali was a symbol of resistance.
(Source: n1info.com/photo: n1info.com)
