Mustafa Ali was recently a guest on the Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia podcast. During the podcast, Ali opened up on a wide variety of topics.
One of the most interesting parts was when he spoke about the discrimination that he has faced in wrestling.
Here is what he said (h/t to Wrestlezone for the quotes below):
“I was 16 when I started wrestling and every single person in the Chicago independent scene said, ‘You’ve got to be a bad guy. You’re a Muslim. We’re gonna make money. We’re gonna call you Sheik Abdullah something. You’re gonna wear a turban.’ I was so terrified of pushing that biased agenda that I refused to do it. I put on a mask and tried to pass myself off as a luchador. I was like, ‘I want to be a Hispanic character.’ I literally wore a mask for the first 6 years of my career because I didn’t want anyone to know I was a Muslim, so I had to hide my identity. It kind of sucks to say that because it feels like the coward’s way out a little bit.
I was like, ‘Screw it. I’ll do it tastefully.’ I had the turban. I’m coming out cutting promos in foreign languages, ‘America this. America that,’ and it worked. People loved it. My bookings quadrupled. I started getting flown out places. I started getting on radars. WWE heard about me for the first time. It was all because of this character and all I had to do is come out and say something offensive about America and I was the number one bad guy on the show. I hated it. I hated every single moment of it. A camera crew was following me around at one time and I told them, ‘I can literally go in that ring and say anything. As long as it’s in a language people don’t understand, they’re gonna boo me.’ I’m gonna literally say [in Urdu], ‘I love this country. I love you people. Thank you for coming out to the show. I give you my heart, but I’m gonna say it in Urdu.’ I go out to the ring. Everybody’s like, ‘Screw you. Go back to your country. USA!’ I looked at the camera and winked. They saw what they saw. It was that easy. I almost think that wrestling became so easy that I kinda fell out of love with it. I put on this rag on my head and…I hated it.
I saw this kid with blue eyes and blonde hair and he jumps out of his chair and puts his fist up and I saw in his eyes. 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.”
I found that throughout history that division is what hurts us the most. When you go, ‘I’m gonna cheer that guy because he’s from where I’m from country-wise. I’m gonna cheer this guy because he’s from this religion.’ What if he’s a piece of crap? Are you still gonna cheer him? I always found that division does no justice. What is true peace? Is peace just us co-existing? Peace is when I look at you and see nothing else but another human being and I would never let anything happen to you. I don’t see him or her. I don’t see us or them. I don’t see any of that. I see you and I. That’s what I see, so what I felt when they were trying to position me as the first Pakistani, ‘Why are you sticking a label on me?’ People hear my name that I’m some sort of Muslim or Islamic background, but why can’t I just be Mustafa Ali? I’m so much more than just the first Pakistani. Obviously there’s some backlash, ‘Oh, you don’t take pride in where you’re from?’ Listen to what I’m saying. I’m saying, ‘Why limit yourself to being just a flag when I feel like I’m more than that?’”
On a related note, Ali also opened up about fans leaving 205 Live early. You can read his comments here.