And I am very excited by the prospects that I see ahead of our institutions in Africa and elsewhere, because I do genuinely feel convinced that the decades ahead can be very, very exciting for our Jamat world-wide if we are able to build in the various parts of the world where we are ... continue to invest in intelligence, in ...
This evening, His Highness the Aga Khan hosted a Banquet in honour of His Excellency President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya. Numerous Government Ministers and senior Diplomats also attended this event. SOURCES POSSIBLY RELATED READINGS (GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY) ...
[A new] World Bank study confirms a central tenet of our Academies planning, our confidence in the value of a residential campus. We believe that students draw valuable life lessons not only from learning together but also from living together -- especially if the mix of students is broadly diversified. The laying of this cornerstone symbolises this commitment to a residential ...
From the seed that was planted here in the Coastal Region some 25 years ago -- when Bi-Swafiya Said received her grant from the Aga Khan Foundation -- the East African Madrasa Programme has grown to include 203 pre-schools, with nearly 800 teachers, reaching some 30,000 households and serving more than 54,000 children. This is truly an inspiring story. It is ...
Inter-governmental cooperation in many areas can be a key which unlocks the future in East Africa. This is why both the Imamat and the AKDN support the creation of new federal constructs in the region -- including the concept of an East African Community. A federal concept simply means that governments will forge a united approach on matters which call for ...
[The Aga Khan University is] planning a number of new post-graduate schools in Pakistan and Eastern Africa, to meet important needs in both areas. Amongst these Graduate Schools will most probably be "Architecture and Human Settlement", "Media and Communications", "Tourism and Leisure", "Management" and "Government, Public Policy and Civil Society".... The central challenge of this new [Faculty of Health Sciences in ...
[I]t is striking to me how many modern thinkers are still disposed to link tolerance with secularism -- and religion with intolerance. In their eyes -- and often in the public eye I fear -- religion is seen as part of the problem and not part of the solution. There are reasons why this impression exists. Throughout history we find terrible ...
The aim of the Aga Khan Museum will be to offer unique insights and new perspectives into Islamic civilisations and the cultural threads that weave through history binding us all together. My hope is that the Museum will also be a centre of education and of learning, and that it will act as a catalyst for mutual understanding and tolerance.... This ...
This exhibition is designed to give us a glimpse into the future. What we see here today is the nucleus of the Islamic art collections of the future Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. This museum, which is being designed by the renowned Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, is conceived as a primarily educational institution in the field of Islamic art and culture, ...
In a world where quality of life is increasingly measured in material terms there is risk that the essential value system of Islam will be eroded, or even threatened with disappearance. Political situations with a theological overlay are also causing disaffection or antagonism between communities of the same faith, and even more so amongst different faiths. At the centre of this ...
The Aga Khan congratulating graduates of a midwife training course in Afghanistan that was sponsored by the Aga Khan Development Network. (Image Gary Otte/AKDN) He is a moderate Muslim religious leader and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. He is also a twice-married jet-setter, and he owns hundreds of racehorses, valuable stud farms, an exclusive yacht club on Sardinia and a ...
[AKDFED's] main purpose "is to contribute to development," [the Aga Khan] adds. "It is not a capitalist enterprise that aims at declaring dividends to its shareholders." Central to his ethos is the notion that his investments can prompt other forms of economic growth within a country or region that results in greater employment and hope for the poor. Economic developments experts ...
[Google translation] It is necessary to constantly consider the relationship between the Ummah and the knowledge society. One realises that countries that have succeeded in reconciling both develop most quickly. On the other hand, those that reject or limit access to the knowledge society get left behind. My concept of Islam is a faith for all time, not backward looking. In ...
The question that must be asked, I believe, is not whether democracy is a good thing in the abstract, but rather how to help democracy perform better in practice. Do we really know what is going wrong? And why? Do we know what corrective steps should be taken? And by whom? These are massive questions, and I do not claim to ...
The term "Enabling Environment" has two implications which I would underscore today. First, it reminds us that the conditions which enable progress can be extremely complex, that an entire "environment" of interacting forces must come together if development is truly to take root -- and to take off. Second -- the term recognises that even the right environment is still only ...
[Google translation] Rarely, if ever, as in this moment, we have witnessed so many misconceptions and misunderstandings between our two companies. My deepest hope is that events of this magnitude encourage and enhance the interest and appreciation of the heritage of civilization that we share and increase knowledge and respect between peoples and cultures. Google translation -- [I] am particularly pleased ...
This exhibition of artistic masterpieces from the Islamic world underlines that the arts, particularly when they are spiritually inspired, can become a medium of discourse that transcends the barriers of our day-to-day experiences and preoccupations. Many questions are currently being raised in the West about the Muslim world, with countless misconceptions and misunderstandings occurring between our contemporary societies. I hope that ...
The Prime Minister hosted a dinner in honour of Prince Karim Aga Khan. SOURCESGovernment of Pakistan Press Release (Source: ismaili.net) POSSIBLY RELATED READINGS (GENERATED AUTOMATICALLY) ...
The vast majority of buildings in the developing world are not "architectured" buildings in the sense of the Western profession. That does not mean that quality buildings do not happen. They happen through a whole series of different processes, and not just the architectural process. The inherited knowledge of builders is remarkable. There is a whole body of inherited knowledge in ...
Our Joint Declaration represents a commitment to go beyond our common concerns about poverty and the need to improve living conditions in the developing world. We now look to enhancing our two-decade long partnership to contribute towards creating stability, mitigating conflict, fostering greater social inclusion and enabling equitable and sustainable human development. President José Manuel Barroso of the European Commission and ...
And you're asking can this concentration of assets become a trampoline for economic and social development. And the answer is very clearly, yes. Interviewer: Unknown in al-Azhar Park, Cairo Let the Beauty We Love Be What We Do, AKDN The Islamic world probably has the highest concentration of historic cities of any world culture.... And you're asking can this concentration of ...
What I'm hoping to achieve [with restoration of historic sites] is the notion that these historic sites are potential economic and social dynamos. They are not frozen, paralysed, historic assets. They are assets that can actually contribute to the quality of life of the people who live in those contexts. Interviewer: Unknown in Kuala Lumpur The Islamic world probably has the ...
Twenty years later, the [Aga Khan Trust for Culture] has shown how culture can be a catalyst for development even in the poorest and most remote areas of the globe. From Afghanistan to Zanzibar, from India to Mali, the Trust's support to historic communities demonstrates how conservation and revitalisation of the cultural heritage -- in many cases the only asset at ...
If we judge from Islamic history, there is much to encourage us. For century after century, the Arabs, the Persians, the Turks and many other Islamic societies achieved powerful leadership roles in the world -- not only politically and economically but also intellectually. Some ill-informed historians and biased commentators have tried to argue that these successes were essentially produced by military ...
2 November 2006 (Islamabad): Luncheon hosted by the Prime Minister of Pakistan.2 November 2006 (Islamabad): Banquet hosted by the President of Pakistan.1 December 2006 (Karachi): Reception hosted by Dr. Ishratul Ibad at Governor House.3 December 2006 (Karachi): Luncheon hosted by Dr. Arbab Ghulam Rahim at Chief Minister House. SOURCESThe News, International, 22 October 2006, Editor-in-Chief: Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman (Text (secondary source): ismaili.net)Daily ...
Our intention is that the model we have adopted elsewhere in the region will also be applied here in this country -- so that this major new hotel in the capital city can be followed, as soon as the necessary allocations are granted, by a quality circuit of new resorts and safari lodges in the Ugandan countryside. When that happens, a ...
In the recent past, in this region, bridges have opened at Tem, Darwaz and Langar. Like them, the Ishkashim Bridge is a concrete expression of cooperation amongst the Governments of Tajikistan and Afghanistan and the Aga Khan Development Network.... Each of the bridges I have mentioned has had a considerable moral and symbolic value, inspiring a spirit of confidence, progress and ...
The Aga Khan spoke of "a long-term commitment to a process of tourism development that can have deep and lasting benefits for Central Asia." ... The Aga Khan also explained the Serena concept as going beyond providing services, creating employment, setting quality benchmarks and generating urban renewal to include "developing human resources, elevating corporate ethics, practising good citizenry and inspiring public ...
Baghdad is one of the great historic cities of the Islamic world. Iraq is not a new country. It's part of the history of our civilisation. It's been a pluralist country. Great philosophers, great historians, great scientists. Reverse the question again. What would the Christian world think if a Muslim army attacked Rome? I think there would be a general reaction ...
As Canadians know so well, the idea of pluralism is not a new one in this world. It has honourable and ancient foundations, including deep roots in Islamic tradition. What is new, today, is that society is globalised, intimately interconnected and extraordinarily interdependent. (1) [Google translation] Many factors have contributed to this new order: the end of the Cold War, the ...
Does Islam have a problem with reason? Not at all. Indeed, I would say the contrary. Of the Abrahamic faiths, Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation, and therefore it is a faith which is eminently logical. Islam is a faith of reason.... I am not opposed to secularism ...
President Yuschenko comes from a family of educators and he himself won academic distinction in the field of economics and finance. He developed the vital gift of a specialised expertise and he then devoted that expertise to the service of his country, helping to create its independent economy, its financial institutions, its new national currency, and its Central Bank. As the ...
I am talking, please, about basic education. What is the definition of an educated person today? Does that definition include some basic knowledge about the Islamic world or not? If it doesn't, perhaps that needs to be corrected.... The knowledge of the different civilisations of the Islamic world, the knowledge of the pluralism of that world, the knowledge of the plurality ...
What we begin here may not have its full impact in any of our lifetimes. But the beginnings we undertake today may well be among the most important things we will ever do.... I would like to speak initially about the logic behind the Aga Khan Academies programme -- to look at its philosophical underpinnings.... At the very heart of our ...
At various times in world history, the locus of knowledge has moved from one centre of learning to another. Europe once came to the Islamic world for intellectual enrichment and even rediscovered its own classical roots by searching in Arabic texts. Astronomy, the so-called "Science of the Universe" was a field of particular distinction in Islamic civilisation, in sharp contrast to ...
We need in the "Ummah" to move away from the normative attitudes towards the acceptance of pluralism of the "Ummah", and that pluralism starts from the time of the Prophet himself and "Hadith" (Sayings of the Prophet Mohammad) as well as the Prophet's historical footprints show that in the life time of the Prophet himself he knew that there would be ...
His Highness the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Ismaili Muslims and founder of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), said today that the revolutionary impact of globalisation and record levels of international migration require development of a new "cosmopolitan ethic" to support constructive pluralism and greater tolerance among different cultures and societies. He was speaking at the Evangelische Akademie ...
There is a human impulse it seems -- fed by fear -- to define "identity" in negative terms. We often determine "who we are" by determining who we are against. This fragmenting impulse not only separates peoples from one another, it also subdivides communities and then it subdivides the subdivisions.... But the human inclination to divisiveness is accompanied, I deeply believe, ...
Your Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen: According to Ilya Trojanov: "The world is wide and salvation lurks everywhere!" But it is not at all easy to find! That is why foreign ministers are perpetually on the move. For many, salvation is yet to be found, but while searching for it I have met a man who yesterday was my guest and today ...
[D]emocratic institutions have not lived up to their potential. In both the developed and the developing world, the promise of democracy has too often been disappointed. For many centuries, enlightened people have argued that democracy was the key to social progress. But today, that contention is in dispute. Our challenge is not to find alternatives to democracy, but to find more ...
