Clinton, Turkish President for Ali funeral

World leaders and celebrities including former US President Bill Clinton and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected to attend the funeral of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali on Friday.

Worshippers and fans of Ali on Thursday attended a Muslim prayer service in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

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The two-day funeral was planned by Ali in the years before his death, according to a family spokesman.

More than 14,000 people have tickets to the event at the site of Ali’s last fight in Louisville in 1961.

The funeral will continue on Friday with an interfaith memorial service and procession through Louisville passing key
locations such as Ali’s childhood home, and a museum dedicated to him.

Tickets to attend the Friday service sold out only an hour after they went on sale.

President Barack Obama will not be able to attend due to his eldest daughter’s graduation on the same day.

Speaking after Jenazah prayers, Dr Sherman Jackson, an Islamic scholar, used a boxing term to describe how “Ali put the question of whether a person can be a Muslim and an American to rest. Indeed, he KO’ed that question.”

 

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