Muhammad Ali Funeral: Photos of Celebrity Guests

“And we should honor him by bringing our gifts to the world as he did”. Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

– Muhammad Ali is remembered as not just a great boxer, but a great man and for Minnesota Muslims he was a person that symbolized everything that’s good in Islam. Ali’s famous quotes, including, “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”, excited boxing fans.

WOMAN: His impact transcends across the world. He was wearing a Batman T-shirt and he ran alongside the Champ’s hearse.

One of the organizers, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says Ali was role model to all.

Muhammad Ali, The Greatest, passed away tragically this week, and his funeral procession is currently happening right now in Louisville, Kentucky. “Muhammad Ali was the last of a fraternity of fantastic men bequeathed to me directly by dad”.

WOMAN: He spoke to the people.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The burial service was private, but 15,000 people turned out for the public memorial service that followed. One of his mandates was that ordinary fans attend, not just VIPs. “Ali made being a Muslim relevant”, said Sherman Jackson, a Muslim scholar at the University of Southern California at his “jenazah”, or funeral, on Thursday.

At the memorial service, eulogies also were planned by Ali’s widow Lonnie Ali, his daughter Maryum Ali, University of Louisville student Natasha Mundkur and family friend John Ramsey. He was our most basic freedoms: “religion, speech, spirit”. “As he moved easily around the world, the rich and powerful were drawn to him, but he was drawn to the poor and forgotten”, she said. Reporter: This three-time heavyweight champion became deliciously eloquent. “Muhammad Ali, he gave away so much money”. And Byron Pitt is with us live. He did things nobody would do. Predicted the round he would knock somebody out, and then he would do it.

BILLY CRYSTAL: He was amusing. Additionally, even more distinguished celebrities, such as Will Smith, were in attendance to pay their respects to the great athlete.

Doctors say people with Parkinson’s Disease are living decades after they are diagnosed and there are two new drugs on the market to help patients.

After being drafted, he said he refused to fight in the US war against Vietnam and stated in his famous quote that no Vietnamese had ever called him the “N” word.

“We will not tolerate politicians or anyone else putting down Muslims and blaming Muslims for a few people”, said Lerner. Yet we reveled in being like him.

“He had charm and charisma and swagger, before we knew what that was”.

Former president Bill Clinton and comedian Billy Crystal also were to eulogize the legendary fighter, after a funeral procession through Louisville, the largest city in the southern state of Kentucky where Ali was born at a time of racial segregation. He gave the day’s final eulogy.