Thousands flock to Louisville as Muhammad Ali is remembered in Islamic Jenazah ceremony

As the faithful chanted a Muslim prayer in unison, dignitaries and fans stood shoulder to shoulder to honour a man who used his celebrity to push for peace among races, religions and cultures.

On phones and screens around the globe, thousands more joined the service from afar through streams and broadcasts, watching a traditional Muslim funeral ceremony play out for one of their heroes.

The prayer service on Thursday, known as Jenazah, began two days of memorials that Muhammad Ali crafted himself in exacting detail years before his death last week. He designed them with the intent to make them open to the world and to offer a view into a faith many Americans know little about.

“Ali was the people’s champion and champion he did the cause of his people,” said Sherman Jackson, a Muslim scholar who spoke at the service. Jackson said Ali did more to normalise the Islamic faith than anyone else, both in his life and in his death.

“Ali made being a Muslim cool,” he said. “Ali made being a Muslim dignified.”

More than 14,000 got tickets for the Thursday service in Ali’s hometown of Louisville. Some travelled thousands of miles to attend. Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, boxing promoter Don King, former boxer Sugar Ray Leonard and Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of Islam, were among the high-profile guests in attendance. Ali joined the Nation of Islam, the black separatist religious movement, in the 1960s. He left after a decade in favour of mainstream Islam, which emphasises an embrace of all races and ethnicities.