Headline June 09, 2016/ ''' THE TOWERING GREATEST '''

''' THE TOWERING GREATEST '''

*!MOHAMMED ALI -WILL NEVER DIE! : The World Student Society,  and !E-WOW! the Ecosystem 2011, will dedicate a Special Module, to his name and honour.

From the White House to Kinshasa, Uzbekistan to Malaysia, Islamabad to New Delhi, Moscow to Beijing, the world so remembered, all these many days, a sporting and cultural icon, saying there would never be another one like him:

Mohammed Ali, *The Towering Greatest*  

Ali was recalled not just as a heavyweight boxing king but also for his fight for social justice, while hundreds told moving personal stories of his warmth and generosity, how he was equally at home with presidents, Kings, and people on the streets.

President Barrack Obama hailed, Ali, who died last Friday, after a very long battle with the Parkinson's disease, as a towering champion ''who stood up and fought for what was right.''

''His fight outside the ring would cost him his title and his public standing,'' Obama said in a heartfelt and heart rendering message.

''It would earn him enemies on the  left and the right,  make him reviled, and nearly sent him to jail. But Ali stood his ground. And his victory helped us get used to the America we recognize today.''

Ali had been Nelson Mandela's hero, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said, revealing how Nelson Mandela's favorite book at his office was an autographed copy of an Ali biography and and that there was a photo of two men together there.

''Nelson Mandela, a boxing enthusiast most of his life, acknowledged Ali as boxing hero. Madiba had great respect for his legacy and spoke with great admiration of Ali's achievements.'' 

Reflecting Ali's reach far beyond boxing, former US president Bill Clinton said he had been  ''honoured''   to award  Ali  the  Presidential Citizen Medal at the White House  in January 2001, just before leaving office.

''Through Triumphs and Trials,'' president Clinton said, Ali '' became even greater than his legend.''

Thousands of kilometeres away in Kinshasa, underling Ali's enduring global appeal, they still talk about that historic night in 1974 in what was then Zaire -the *Rumble in the Jungle*.

Ali knocked out the previously undefeated George Foreman in the greatest victory of his storied career.

''Ali was part of our youth, it is he who shaped us,'' Martino Kavuala, a former amateur boxer now aged 63, remembered fondly.

''In those days, if you were young and you didn't box, it wasn't only that you weren't really a youngster, you didn't have a place in the society.''

Football great Pele led the tributes from the sporting world, which united for once, to remember one of its very biggest names.

''The sporting universe has just suffered a big loss. Muhammad Ali was my friend, my idol,  my hero,'' Pele said on Instagram.

''We spent many moments together and always kept a good connection throughout the years. the sadness is overwhelming.''

Ali spoke out for African American  civil rights  in the 1960s, carrying on his fight against injustice and sacrificing the prime years of his own career in the process.

Ali won an Olympic gold medal in 1960 and  battled the onset of Parkinson's to light the torch of the  1996  Olympic opening ceremony in one of the most memorable moments in games history, ever.

Foreman reminisced about the  three-way rivalry he enjoyed with Ali and Joe Frazier during heavyweight boxing's most feted era, tweeting, ''Ali, Frazier, and foreman,........we were one guy. A part of me slipped away, the greatest piece.''

''We lost a legend, a hero, and a great man,'' said Floyd Mayweather, who retired last year as an unbeaten welterweight champion.

''He's one of the guys who paved the way for me to be where I am at.  Words can't explain what Ali did for the sport.''        

Another former world heavy weight title holder,  Mike Tyson, tweeted:

'' God came for his champion. *So long great one* The Greatest. RIP.''

Don King, who promoted the   '' Rumble in the Jungle '' , said  Ali will live on forever alongside other  US  civil-rights  heroes.

''He was a tremendous, not just a boxer, a great human being, an icon,'' Don King said.

''Muhammed Ali's spirit,  Like   Martin Luther  King Jr, will ever live on.That's why Muhammad Ali will never die.''

In Uzbekistan, at the amateur  World Series of Boxing the crowd and boxers from Cuba and Britain stood in silence as three bells rang out in poignant respect.

But then, so did the entire world, and !WOW!  -the World Students Society and !E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem  2011:

The body of Muhammad Ali will be brought back to his home-city of Louisville, before a week of marchers and tributes culminating in a funereal parade, and a stadium memorial service that will be broadcast around the world.

The former boxed had planned the service years in advance, said the spokesman, Bob Gunnell. He will be honoured on Friday at a service presided over by an Imam, after a procession down a once-segregated main street that is now named Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

Mr Gunnell said it would be an interfaith service, reflecting his devotion to people of all races, religions and backgrounds.'' 

One of Ali's last public remarks was to decry the  Donald Trump's proposal to ban Muslim immigrants from America-

And some American Muslims hope that the sight of an American hero being celebrated as a devout Muslim, will make another powerful statement.

     

With ever respectful dedication to the loving memory Of Muhammad Ali, the World's -one of the greatest human, and  an athlete of the highest class.    

See You, the World at large on !WOW!  -the World Students Society and !E-WOW!  the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Veni Vedi Vici '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless