[wzslider autoplay=”true”]A decent, sad and heartwarming farewell for the world champion Muhammad Ali was held before thousands of people, in the spirit of messages he left behind – about tolerance and coexistence between people.
That is precisely how his funeral went by, yesterday at noon local time, attended by thousands of believers, Muslims, and other believers of all nations. As a huge river, they simply over flooded his hometown of Louisville, to say goodbye to him.
At the funeral in the Freedom Hall there was a group of Bosnians, led by the imam of the BiH mosque in Louisville, Azam Effendi Efendira. He said that the funeral is being attended by around one hundred of members of his jemaat and that they all came to join the collective prayer for the champion. Efendira said that a colony of 5.000 to 6.000 Bosnians lives in Louisville.
Apart from a number of local leaders, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also appeared at the funeral unannounced. Next to the former US president Bill Clinton and the Jordanian King Abdullah, Erdogan participated in the special memorial service in the KFC YMa Centre.
The main speaker was Bill Clinton, with other famous athletes and local leaders. The funeral itself went by without incident, with increased security measures and evident presence of police officers. The event was followed by several hundreds of accredited journalists from USA and the rest of the world.
The Freedom Hall in Louisville is the place which Muhammad Ali, given that he was severely ill for a long time, chose while he was still alive, preparing for this moment of final goodbye from his fellow citizens and all those who loved him, respected him and admired him.
In this vast sports arena, in early 1960s Ali achieved his first victory in the long boxing career. The Freedom Hall has the capacity of 16.000 seats. Until the beginning of the funeral, it was not yet filled to capacity, although some visitors, especially those who arrived from different parts of USA wanting to participate in this religious part of the farewell to the famous boxer, started gathering in the hall even before dawn.
Coffin with Muhammad Ali’s body arrived a little after 12 am and the religious ceremony started right after that, lasting for a little over 45 minutes.
Prior to the beginning of the prayer, imam Zahid Shakir, who was Ali’s friend, said that everyone, regardless of confession, is welcome to the funeral and invited those present to pray in their own preferred way.
Louisville, Muhammad Ali’s hometown, is all in the sign of the farewell to the famous champion, who chose the “Cave Hill” cemetery as a place for his final rest. “Cave Hill” is a cultural and historical monument, because many giants from the US history lay there.
(Source: avaz.ba/photo: n1info.com)
