ABSTRACT
In 1967, Muhammad Ali refused induction into the Army, claiming conscientious objector status, whereupon he was indicted by a federal grand jury, costing him his boxing license. Ali himself, fresh from a hajj to Mecca, was all the more settled into his Muslim faith and practice to which he remained true until his death. Through her writings, Ulrike Meinhof crafted a unique perspective on the global political economy of the 1970s, one that saw and critiqued Western imperialism from within its centers of power. Both Meinhoff and Ali were unconventional theorists who embraced youth culture and theorized through their political performance. But the substance of their theory was particularly compelling in its critique of Western imperialism from within. Their perspectives held a mirror to the contradictions and hypocrisies of Western Imperialism and its historical legacies. Germany’s complicity in the United States War in Vietnam was a central theme of Meinhof’s writing.
