Muhammad ‘Jews Are Devils’ Ali Was The BBC’s Sports Personality of the Century – But Tyson Fury Is Beyond The Pale?

Heavyweight World Champion Tyson Fury was pilloried last week for some of his views about homosexuality and women – his nomination for BBC Sports Personality of the Year being called into question.

For those who have missed the furore – and you must have been on a holiday to Mars to do so – let me remind you what Fury’s views actually are.

Fury believes homosexuality and abortion are wrong and believes a woman is better suited to the kitchen than at work. Views which were non-offensive and pretty commonplace in pre 1960s Britain.

Fury’s background must also be taken in consideration if we are to understand his traditional view on life. He comes from a large Irish traveller background, which holds strong traditional values about things such as sex before marriage.

Fury is also a born-again Christian, his Twitter feed is littered with references to God and his beliefs. He thanked the Lord publically as soon as he dethroned Wladimir Klitschko of his world title belts in Germany a fortnight ago.

Fury is a regular churchgoer and one can conclude that his views about homosexuality, abortion, a woman’s role and sex outside marriage are the norm within many congregations, just as they will be in mosques every Friday.

So why the big furore over a man who holds these traditional values? Why not just accept that we are all allowed to hold different views and what about free speech?

Well Fury has to be shut up because the liberals in Britain today only believe in free speech if they agree with what you’re saying.

I also think Fury has been treated abominably, especially when you compare it to the treatment handed out to another heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali.

Muhammad Ali had far worse views than anything Tyson Fury has said. For example, Ali openly said that black men who have sex with white women should be killed, that the mixing of the races is an abomination and that homosexuality is a white man’s disease. Here is a direct quote:

“All Jews and gentiles are devils… Blacks are no devils… Everything black people doing wrong comes from (the white people): Drinking, smoking, prostitution, homosexuality, stealing, gambling: It all comes from (the white people)”

And that is just a taster of some of the things this man has said. Imagine if Tyson Fury even uttered anything of this sort. He would not only be thrown out of the sport, he’d probably be chased out of the country.

But it gets worse because Ali was also a member of Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam, which was an openly racist and anti-semitic organisation who members went on to commit a number of terrorist acts. Muhammad’s successor, Louis Farrakhan, was banned from entering Britain few years back due to his extremism. (By the way, he was represented at the time by Labour’s Mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan!)

I’m struggling to understand why Fury is castigated by the liberal press for uttering the values of the 1960s, yet Ali, who said things which are way beyond the pale, is lauded by these same people as a great man.

Ironically, Ali was presented with the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Century in 1999, the award which has been the catalyst to the condemnation of Fury.

Yet when Ali was awarded this honour, there were no petitions to have him removed, there were no threats from other athletes not to attend and no condemnation in the media.

Why was this? Because he’s a Muslim? Because he’s black? Or maybe because he’s old and has Parkinson’s disease? I don’t know, but the hypocrisy concerning the treatment of Fury and Ali stinks.

So from this sorry situation can we deduce that it is fair to ridicule the traditional opinions of a white traveller whereas the repugnant views of a black Muslim are off limits?

Well that’s what it looks like from here.

Paul Nuttall is the Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP)