Turkish President Erdogan to speak at Muhammad Ali’s memorial services

Britain’s former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and actor Will Smith will be pallbearers at Muhammad Ali’s funeral on Friday.

He will be buried at Cave Hill cemetery in a private family ceremony, and an interfaith memorial service, broadcast online, will follow at the town’s sports arena.

“Muhammad shook up the world and he showed everybody he was a world-class fighter and humanitarian, so now let’s welcome the world”.

Former us president Bill Clinton, and comedian Billy Crystal, a long-time friend of Ali’s is expected to deliver eulogies.

Instead, a close aide “will read a letter from the president and the first lady as part of Friday’s service in Louisville”.

“Everything that we’re doing here was blessed by Muhammad Ali and requested”, family spokesman Bob Gunnell said in a news conference Monday.

The boxer had been suffering from a respiratory illness, a condition that was complicated by Parkinson’s disease.

Ali was respected throughout the Muslim world – from Pakistan to Indonesia, from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia and across Africa – for the values he espoused and promoted, the imam said. That tribute was dropped at the last minute because his wife, Lonnie, anxious it would cause the center to be shut down and knew people would want to gather there in grief.

Muhammad was diagnosed with the neurological disorder in 1984 while Michael discovered he had Parkinson’s in 1991 and the pair joined forces to raise awareness and funds for research and Michael said having Ali “in his corner” was a boost.

Since Ali’s death of natural causes on Friday evening, there has been an outpouring of goodwill toward “the Greatest”, a man who united many across cultural, religious and political barriers.

Despite his deteriorating health and frailty, Muhammad Ali’s famous sense of humour and fighting spirit is still evident in front of the camera.

Ali’s body returned to Louisville on Sunday.

Islamic studies scholar Timothy Gianotti stressed that “this was really designed and intended by the Champ himself to be his last statement to the people of planet Earth”.

“When Muhammad Ali fought against the Vietnam War in the 1960s, Jim Brown was in his corner”.

“It’s important to have a memorial service open to people of all walks of life”.