Well, he did fail his army aptitude test not too long (like a month or two) after he publicly announced that he became a Muslim, which is when he was classified as 1-Y and ineligible, so that's not exactly the case. But when he was reclassified to the eligible 1-A in early '66, Ali did blaim the government and did claim that the main reason for their reclassifying him was because of him being a Muslim.