LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – During the memorial service for Muhammad Ali at the KFC Yum! Center, Ambassador Shabazz delivered a powerful speech and prose reading.
Shabazz is the ambassador-at-large for Belize and the daughter of the late human rights activist Malcolm X. Ali’s friendship with Malcolm X led to his conversion to Islam.
She offered her condolences to the family, calling them each by name and honoring them.
“Just know that when you are the decedent of, in the presence of someone whose life was filled with principle, that the seed is in you, so you have to cultivate that responsibly as well," Shabazz said.
She spoke of how meaningful it was to her to be able to share the moment with Ali’s family and how meaningful Ali has been in her own life.
“While he and I had a treasured relationship, the genesis of this love was through the love of my father. Muhammad Ali was the last of a fraternity of amazing men bequeathed to me directly by my dad,” Shabazz said. She went on to say that Ali had joined heaven's “summit of fearless humanitarians.”
Ambassador Shabazz quoting Malcolm X & #MuhammadAli
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She discussed the faith centered friendship Muhammad Ali and her father Malcolm X shared and quoted Ali, “We all have the same God. We just serve him differently.”
Shabazz said she has been comforted by living in Ali’s hometown of Louisville for the past 6 years.
She ended her talk with a quote from her father Malcolm X, “May we meet again in the light of understanding, and I say to you with the light of that compass by any means necessary.”
