Mahershala Ali Delivers Moving Speech: I’m a muslim.

January 29, 2017 by TJB Writer in Latest News with 0 Comments

Mahershala Ali

Mahershala Ali Delivers Inspirational Speech: I’m a muslim.

Sunday night, Mahershala Ali made an inspiring speech at the SAG Awards. While receiving Best Supporting Actor award for his performance in Moonlight, he spoke about being a muslim in the wake of Trump’s controversial ban. He stated,

I think what I’ve learned from working on Moonlight is we see what happens when we persecute people. They fold into themselves, and what I was so grateful about in having the opportunity to play [his Moonlight character] Juan was playing a gentleman. Who saw a young man folding into himself as the result of the persecution of his community, and taking the opportunity to uplift him, tell him that he mattered, that he was okay, accept him and I hope that we do a better job of that.

He continued,

When we get caught up in the minutiae, the details that make us all different, there’s two ways of seeing that. You can see the texture of that person, the qualities that make them unique, or you can go to war about it, say, ‘That person is different from me, I don’t like you, so let’s battle.’ My mother is an ordained minister, I’m a Muslim. She didn’t do backflips when I called her to tell her I converted 17 years ago. But I tell you now, we put things to the side, I’m able to see her, she’s able to see me, we love each other, the love has grown. That stuff is minutiae. It’s not that important.

See the clip of his speech below.