NOTE: It is said that Michael Jackson passed away as a Muslim. As an American Muslim, I offer the following tribute:

I will always believe that Michael Jackson was innocent of all molestation charges pursued against him. Cases were pursued, evidence presented, and all ended in abrupt settlements or innocent verdicts. However, let my tribute be one of love, not legal defense. 

Michael Jackson was one of the most extraordinary men to ever live. In his brief life, he invented both a new genre of music, as well as a new form of dance. Yet, his artistic accomplishments were far exceeded by his love for this good world.

It was in the 1980’s that Michael Jackson helped place global hunger on the map. Before any celebrity made such overtures towards victims of poverty, it was Michael who sent millions to Africa, doing everything he could to prevent people from starving. And outside of hunger, it was at his Never Neverland Ranch that Michael purchased millions in medical equipment, believing that he could heal children who hospitals deemed doomed.

Many criticized him for his whimsical fantasies, but how could you fault a man who believed he could heal the unhealable and feed the ever starving?

It was always fitting that Michael’s best tribute would come from a fellow American hero, President Ronald Reagan. While President Reagan fought to end the Evil Empire, despite international paranoia that our good country would eventually succumb to the USSR’s nuclear invasion, it was Michael that never let us fear. Most of us spent the 1980’s glued to televisions, moonwalking to the music videos of ‘Billy Jean’ and ‘Rock With You,’ celebrating like a country that had no enemy. How could President Reagan not be thankful to a man that always made us feel better? Despite the absurd attraction we have for bad news, songs like ‘Thriller’ were just too attractive not to pay more attention to.

And remember those who said “never?” Those who said we could never defeat the Evil Empire? Those who said that AIDS would never be cured? Those who said that poverty would never be fixed? Those who said that Michael could never be innocent?

And then there’s Michael – the man of Never Neverland. The man who believed that every terminal illness could be cured, never never. That poverty could be eradicated, never never. Only fitting to name his favorite place Never Neverland, the one place in the world where “never” would never be true.

But in this philosophy, in his drive to heal our world, what effect has truly manifested? Entrepreneurs like Bill and Melinda Gates send billions to Africa, setting up infrastructures to better facilitate distribution of care. Senators continually fight to empower our National Institute of Health with increasing funds, hoping to develop cures that will forever end terminal illnesses. And rather than pine over the inevitable, our best women and men of today are working towards world peace – a peace that we all believe can truly happen.

Never Neverland isn’t a Ranch in California – it is a belief, a forward sense of compassion and duty, pioneered by Michael and adopted worldwide, that the pains of today will be finished tomorrow – his greatest legacy.

Michael Jackson. My dearest King, our American hero – never leave us.

Never never.

- Muhammad Ali Hasan

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