Lew Alcindor's life started out about as normal as it can get for a giant like kid growing up in Harlem, New York. He had loving but stern parents that made sure that Lew and his siblings stayed in line and always got good grades in school. The Alcindor's religion of choice was Roman Catholicism, and the family visited church more than once a week. However, as Lew grew older he began go realize that he didn't believe in a majority of the wires that the rest of his church believed in. As a freshman at UCLA, Lew read a book that would change his life forever.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was the title of this book. This book made Lew "understand that there was a lot more to monotheism than what I knew being raised as a Roman Catholic." Lew Alcindor first learned his Islam from Hammas Abdul Khaalis, a former jazz drummer. It was by him that Alcindor was given the name Abdul Kareem. Lew had a lot of respect for Hammas and soaked in all of this new information like a sponge. He officially changed his name publicly to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar right after he graduated from UCLA. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar literally means "the noble one, server of The Lord Almighty." To further his studies, Kareem ventured to Libya and Saudi Arabia to learn basic Arabic and to immerse himself in his new culture of Islam. The Islam religion was very against the Vietnam War according to boxer Muhammad Ali. Unlike Ali, Kareem didn't want to make any public outcries on the matter because he wanted to just be, in his own words, "a proud, black, Islamic member of society, without all the attention due to religion." One of the main reasons Kareem wanted to change his name is because he didn't want to be associated with slavery any longer. The name Alcindor came from his families slave master who took them from Africa and made them work on his southern plantations. In Kareem's mind, he doesn't believe he would've been nearly as good at basketball if it wasn't for Islam because it gave him an inner peace and knew anything was possible. (Kareem Islam)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was the title of this book. This book made Lew "understand that there was a lot more to monotheism than what I knew being raised as a Roman Catholic." Lew Alcindor first learned his Islam from Hammas Abdul Khaalis, a former jazz drummer. It was by him that Alcindor was given the name Abdul Kareem. Lew had a lot of respect for Hammas and soaked in all of this new information like a sponge. He officially changed his name publicly to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar right after he graduated from UCLA. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar literally means "the noble one, server of The Lord Almighty." To further his studies, Kareem ventured to Libya and Saudi Arabia to learn basic Arabic and to immerse himself in his new culture of Islam. The Islam religion was very against the Vietnam War according to boxer Muhammad Ali. Unlike Ali, Kareem didn't want to make any public outcries on the matter because he wanted to just be, in his own words, "a proud, black, Islamic member of society, without all the attention due to religion." One of the main reasons Kareem wanted to change his name is because he didn't want to be associated with slavery any longer. The name Alcindor came from his families slave master who took them from Africa and made them work on his southern plantations. In Kareem's mind, he doesn't believe he would've been nearly as good at basketball if it wasn't for Islam because it gave him an inner peace and knew anything was possible. (Kareem Islam)