Week-in-Review — Sunday, July 20, 2008 July 21, 2008
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His Highness the Aga Khan’s five-day visit to Portugal, which ended last Tuesday, was part of a series of visits around the world to mark his Golden Jubilee year, the 50th anniversary of his becoming the imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, an ethnically diverse community whose members reside in more than 25 countries, including Portugal. The Aga Khan Development Network signs Protocol with Portuguese government for the National Plan of Reading.
From Europe, His Highness the Aga Khan attends the launch of Louvre Museum’s future Islamic Art Department.
In Canada, the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Nursing was honoured at the 12th annual Ismaili Muslim Community’s Stampede Breakfast on Saturday July 5 for its partnership in the annual Women and Wellness Conference. View the pictorial history and video of Ismaili Muslim Stampede Floats in Calgary.
From Central Asia, Aga Khan Football Gold Cup may see a revival in Bangladesh. A Jewish temple was renovated by the Herat cultural department, in the old part of Herat city north east of Kabul, Afghanistan. We have various Health News from Aga Khan University and Health Services. Saturday was party time in all Karakoram BCs; the porters celebrated Aga Khan’s birthday (Imamat Day) by dancing and singing around bonfires, and in Pakistan, the Federal Minister appreciated the efforts of the Aga Khan Development Network at the opening of the hydro-power project in Hunza valley. The University of Central Asia (UCA) has published a book on Protection of Archeological Monuments of Gorno Badakhshan, Tajikistan.
Blooming in Cairo, Egypt, the $30-million Al-Azhar park project was spearheaded by the Aga Khan, whose family ties to Cairo date back to its founding by the Fatimids in 969. Check out photographs and video of the park.
In our Ismailis in the News, Alykhan Velshi, a spokesman for Mr. Kenney, said the Conservatives took steps to join the Holocaust task force almost immediately after becoming the government. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown says “Don’t portray Muslims as victims, we have moved on” and she talks about the Aga Khan’s visit to London. Samiah Razak, a South Asian Ismaili Houstonian needs your help. Please visit Samiah’s website for more information.
This week we are delighted to feature some of our Ismaili Muslim Authors and to highlight their publications. We begin with Dr Shafique Virani’s much acclaimed book ‘The Ismailis in the Middle Ages’ which has previously been featured at Ismailimail. Visit his website for more details about his book. Calgarian Journalist Mansoor Ladha’s book, ‘A Portrait in Pluralism’, chronicles the development of the Ismaili community in Canada. Eboo Patel’s book ‘Acts of Faith’: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation deals n part with Patel’s search for identity as the child of immigrants from India and as a Muslim.
The Aga Khan Development Network website has been revised. In addition to the redesign, new navigation menus should make it easier to access related information. New information has been added in a number of areas, particularly relating to activities in countries where AKDN is present. First of the featured article was on the Aga Khan Academies as they are dedicated to expanding access to quality education.
Dr Reza Shah-Kazemi, Research Associate at the IIS, participated in the 7th Building Bridges, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This year’s seminar addressed the theme: ‘Communicating the Word: Revelation, Translation and Interpretation in Christianity and Islam’.
Aid money should go to agencies doing the real work. Journalist Don Cayo’s article which deals with the current foreign aid mechanism in Canada and the roles of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that actually deliver most services in most poor countries.
From the blogosphere, Sanjeev Gupta, a regional program manager for a non-governmental organization called the Aga Khan Foundation, says that while some parts of Afghanistan remain too volatile to visit, Bamiyan, the province in which he works, is blessed with relative peace, thinks it’s about time war-torn Afghanistan had a tourism industry and an interesting post from George about Village Life in Hunza. Visit Flickr page as well for photos from Hunza.
Documentary An Islamic Conscience: the Aga Khan and the Ismailis film is now available in ten languages.
Ali to Karim, a Tribute to the Ismaili Imams recounts the story of our 49 Imams in seven episodes. It traces the unbroken thread of Imamat through the tapestry of Muslim civilizations woven over 1400 years of history. During the summer of 2008, this production will be hosted in 7 cities across the United States.
We have a historic picture of Prince Karim Aga Khan as he arrives in Karachi for his enthronement ceremony on 23 January 1958 escorted by President Iskander Mirza and Mrs Naheed Mirza.
At our Spirit and Life Blog, we began the week reading about Khojas – by Professor Azim Nanji, and for Yaum-e Ali, we selected a collection of hadith of Hazrat Ali (A.S) from Reza Shah-Kazemi’s (2006), Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam ‘Ali. We visited two very interesting New Islamic Garden Web Sites on online, which focus on gardens of the Middle East are now online, and reflected on the Qur’anic notion of the universe, as referred to by The Aga Khan in an excerpt from his speech in London in 2003. We read an article about the Institute of Ismaili Studies by Dr Paul E Walker and pondered upon some Words of Wisdom in an extract of the Aga Khan’s speech in India, 1983. In an interview with La Croix, France, published April 8, 2003, Mawlana Hazar Imam talks about his role as a Living Imam of the Ismaili Community. We concluded the week with excerpts on Cultural diversities of Ismaili Muslims.
That is all from this week, hope you will be looking forward to more exciting and interesting news and stories next week.
Click here for last week’s review.
Wow! What a busy week! Thank you for summarizing :-)