As many as 1,000 people attended an interfaith memorial service for Muhammad Ali at the Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam on Thursday, June 9th. CAIR Georgia united with other Georgia Muslim organizations and mosques to remember and pray for the late athlete and humanitarian.
Full video of the event can be viewed here.
“The diversity of the crowd showed [Muhammad Ali] was admired universally,” said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of CAIR-Georgia. “He was a Muslim and an African-American but he was loved by so many people from different communities, and the diversity of this evening proves that.”
During the event, a diverse group of speakers discussed what Ali meant to their respective communities.
Speakers included:
*Imam Sulaimaan Hamed, Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam
*Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR Georgia
*Imam Ibrahim Pasha, former imam, Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam
*Dr. Gerald Durley, fmr. Pastor, Providence Missionary Baptist Church
*Soumaya Khalifa, Exec. Director of Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta
*Rev. Dr. Francys Johnson, President of Georgia NAACP
*Ron Thomas, Sports Journalism Director at Morehouse College
*State Senator Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta)
*Commissioner Larry Johnson (Dekalb County)
Sponsoring organizations included:
*AtlantaMuslim.com
*CAIR Georgia
*Council of Masajid (Mosques) of Metropolitan Atlanta
*Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta
*Inner City Muslim Action Network (IMAN Atlanta)
*Madina Institute
*Oppressed Peoples Online Word
*Roswell Community Masjid