Nation of Islam is now a shadow of the group Muhammad Ali joined

Muhammad Ali, laid to rest in the tradition of his Muslim faith in June, introduced many Americans to Islam.

But the group that brought Islam to Ali has diminished since 1964, when Ali announced that he was a proud member of the Nation of Islam.

“Ali did more to normalize Islam in this country than perhaps any other Muslim in the history of the United States,” said religion scholar Sherman Jackson, speaking at Ali’s funeral service June 9 in Louisville, Kentucky.