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CNN Live Event/Special

Muhammed Ali Offers Support for Victims

Aired September 20, 2001 - 14:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go directly to New York where former prize boxer Muhammed Ali talking to reporters.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

QUESTION: ... saw it on TV?

MUHAMMED ALI, FORMER BOXER: It felt like a dream (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I thought it was a movie -- making a movie. I didn't think something that it was that really happened in real life. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I couldn't imagine. Then after two or three minutes I realized it was real. And I just couldn't see -- can't understand how people can take a plane and run into a building knowing they're going to die too.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) all Americans of all religions?

ALI: Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams; they all have different names, but they all contain water. So religions have different names; they're all the same truth. It's faith in different ways (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I think the people of all religion should (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and understand that people believe different things. And it's a shame that this had to happen before people started thinking about Islam and Muslim.

QUESTION: I hear you say that Islam was a religion not of hate?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a religion of peace, it's not a religion of hate. Unfortunately, there are fanatics in a lot of religions, ours as well, so -- but that's not what the religion stands for.

I don't mean to be rude, but they're -- they tell us we have to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to do one thing: I want to give the champ his ID so he can get in without being challenged. And I'll give it to Iman Pashsa (ph).

And I just want to say, I just came back from the site, and I can't tell you how much it will mean for the firefighters, the police officers, the rescue workers to see the champ; how much it meant for the people that have been here 18, 20, 21, 22 hours a day. It really -- it means a lot to these people to see that people like, you know, Muhammed Ali, the world champion cares enough about them to come and just express his concern, his thoughts. And we appreciate him coming. I can't tell you how much we appreciate his coming.

WOODRUFF: That has to and very special gesture. Everyone recognizes Muhammed Ali, heavyweight boxing champion who spoke, I think, very eloquently, talking about Islam as a religion of peace. He -- we believe he has apparently has come from touring the site and wanting, among so many others, to bring comfort and praise to the hardworking rescue workers there. The firefighters -- in fact, Muhammad Ali wearing a firefighter's cap -- police workers and so many others working in the aftermath of last week's devastation.

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