© www.middleeasteye.netAn Ali fight fan, Erdogan is delivered a knock-out punch on speaking at the funeral.
According to CNN Turk, during funeral prayers on Thursday Erdogan was not allowed to lay a piece of cloth from the Kaaba on the coffin while the head of Turkey's religious affairs directorate did not receive permission to recite from the Koran. To make things worse funeral organizers took Erdogan off the list of possible speakers at the funeral allegedly due to time limitation, a report published by Turkey's Dogan news agency said.
The Turkish president however spoke at the dinner organized by Turks and other Muslims living in the United States on Thursday, where he called Ali a "voice of the oppressed." "The fact that he converted to Islam at the age of 22 in a country such as the United States and maintained his stance without diverting from the path he knew as right ... attracted our admiration," Erdogan said, according to Reuters.
There were also reports of a quarrel between US secret service officials and Erdogan's body guards over standing room, Dogan suggested. The speculations have been denied by Erdogan's office, which explained that the president had "completed his religious service" and decided to take off.
Three-time world champion Muhammad Ali, who died at the age of 74 in Phoenix, Arizona, joined the Nation of Islam, the black separatist religious movement, in his 20s, and then converted to Islam.
Comment: Humble he is not. Erdogan, receiving the news he was not to speak at the funeral, threw in the towel and left the arena. So much for his purported admiration and devotion to Mohammed Ali, which didn't outweigh his hypocrisy and ulterior motives.