Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, the legendary boxer converted to Islam in 1964 assuming the name of Muhammad Ali.
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Among the thousands who descended on Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday for the traditional Muslim prayer service in honor of Muhammad Ali, was a group of Islamic men from the Triangle who drove all night to be a part of the occasion.
Ali passed away from septic shock last Friday in Phoenix, Arizona, five days after being hospitalised for a respiratory condition.
Lewis said he can’t put into words his feelings about being asked to be a pallbearer at his hero’s memorial. “In the case of someone of Muhammad Ali’s stature, to leave any of those rights unfulfilled would be a crime”.
“Please use discretion and we will encourage you not to film the burial service from afar, from your helicopters flying over the cemetery”, family spokesman Bob Gunnell told a press conference Thursday.
A fellow Muslim who shares the boxing great’s name arrived with no hotel reservation, just a belief that this 8,000-mile pilgrimage was important to say goodbye to the global icon considered a hero of his faith.
“We welcome our sisters, our elders, our youngsters. If you’re an American, Ali belongs to you, too”. City buses flashed “Ali – The Greatest” in orange lights across their marquees.
“He turned scars into stars”.
Jackson praised Ali for advancing the cause of black Americans during and after the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
“You’ve got to be southern to talk that stuff”, Jackson said, smiling.
A flood had damaged some of the items, but the original City of Louisville news release, declaring that Muhammad Ali Boulevard was official, was taped to the back of the sign. It was a bold statement for Ali, who was then at the pinnacle of his athletic career. “He was also a freedom fighter who threw his punches for all the oppressed people in the world”, said Erdogan, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.
“But he went from being reviled and rejected to being revered”, Jackson said.
Earlier, a Jenazah, a Muslim prayer service, was held in Freedom Hall. Organizers said on Thursday they expected the sports arena – named after the KFC restaurant chain and its parent company – to be fully packed, with at least 15,000 attendees.
“They didn’t know how many Muslims are there – who are they – but Muhammad Ali brought that.to the front”.
Tomorrow, Muhammad Ali will make his last journey through the streets of his hometown in a hearse.
The US Secret Service is organizing security at the center, and planned to sweep for bombs ahead of the service.
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Hugging a picture of herself as a baby with Ali, Hassan said that in today’s environment, which is often not friendly toward Muslims, she holds on to what Ali stood for and “his contributions to society, his contributions to the world, what it means to be truthful, honest, to stand up for justice, to speak truth to power”.
