Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, was 19 years old and traveling to Chicago with his brother Rudy from Louisville to see Elijah Muhammad speak. There he introduced himself to Malcolm X who was also attending.
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He didn't. Elijiah Muhammad did because Malcolm broke apart from the nation of Islam, and after his trip to Mecca, returned to the US to preach a radically different and more peaceful Islam than what Elijiah Muhammad was teaching. Also Malcolm made public the corruption taking place within the nation (elijiah impregnating teenage secretaries, etc.)