March 15, 2019 | Harry Kettle
Mustafa Ali is a WWE Superstar still receiving a push in WWE. He might have lost an opportunity at Elimination Chamber due to a concussion, but once he was cleared to compete, Ali picked up where he left off.
He was recently featured in Secret Life Of Muslims, an online video series with the intention of addressing Muslim stereotypes. During that interview, he discussed the reason he had for giving up his heel gimmick on the indies. He saw the hatred that was ingrained in people and did not want to be a part of furthering that animosity toward a different culture.
“The initial stages of my career I was actually hiding behind a mask to hide who I was, but I was getting frustrated. I wasn’t getting better bookings, I wasn’t competing at bigger events.”
“Several of my friends in the industry kept saying, ‘You know, now is the time – you should try out doing an evil character’ and so was born Prince Mustafa Ali. I had the whole head garb thing going and foreign language. Bookings went up and I was getting flown all over the US to compete. Something inside of me, there was always an uneasy feeling.”
“I remember seeing a young boy, maybe six, seven years old, and as I approached the guard rail, he jumped out of his chair and he put his hands up. And I remember looking into this kid’s eyes and I remember seeing hate. And right then and there it hit me. I was like, ‘Did I just teach this kid to hate people that look like me?’”
Now Mustafa Ali is a babyface and does not have any of the typical gimmick that a Muslim character typically has in the business. He grew up as a big fan of classic babyfaces and hopes to continue that path.
Ali is able to do his own thing and through this video series, he hopes to enlighten some to what his true intentions are. Not only that, but also educate and hopefully, change some people’s preconceived notions about people they might not fully understand. This is the reason why he didn’t think portraying a bad guy as a Muslim was very productive.
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