May 20, 2013
Canadian’s are marking Monday May 20 as a Victoria Day. As a tribute to Britain’s longest reigning monarch, Simergphotos.com is pleased to bring a pertinent piece that contains quotes by Ismaili Imams as well as a little known story with a photo about a tiara that the 48th Ismaili Imam presented to the Queen for her Diamond Jubilee.
Click here to read at Simerg Photos.
Published to commemorate the reopening of a renowned equestrian museum, this book celebrates the grandeur of the horse and its presence in Chantilly.
One of France’s most visited monuments, the Château de Chantilly features gardens by André Le Nôtre, a world-renowned art collection, and impressive stables that were the center of 18th-century French equestrian culture and were transformed into a captivating museum in 1982. Now, under the auspices of the Aga Khan and the Foundation for the Safeguarding and Development of the Domain of Chantilly, the Museum of the Horse has undergone an extensive renovation. In addition to detailing the contents of the museum’s galleries, this beautifully illustrated volume explores the important role that Chantilly has played in horse racing and hunting. It takes readers on a tour of the historic stables and surrounding grounds and, in personal essays, looks at the close ties between horse and rider through the centuries.
via Philip Jodidio: The Museum of the Horse. Prestel Publishing (Hardcover).
All related search at Ismailimail
His Highness the Aga Khan, second from right, gave the keynote address at the International Conference on “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development” in Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang Province, May 15, 2013. Photo: Xinhua/Xu Yu.
The Role of Culture in Development
Hangzhou, China, 15 May 2013 – His Highness the Aga Khan today delivered the keynote address at a conference entitled “Culture: Key to Sustainable Development” organised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Ministry of Culture of the People’s Republic of China, the National Commission of the People’s Republic of China and the Hangzhou Municipal Government in Hangzhou, China.
As Chairman of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), the Aga Khan shared examples of how the Trust had been able to use culture as a catalyst for development. The examples included the restoration, through the Aga Khan Historic Cities Programme, of 20 major heritage sites in nine different countries – many of them at UNESCO World Heritage Sites – including Kabul, Cairo and Zanzibar.
Press Release: http://www.akdn.org/Content/1181
Speech: http://www.akdn.org/Content/1180
TheIsmaili: http://www.theismaili.org/cms/1439
Conference Website: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture
His Highness the Aga Khan was a member of an International Jury which announced the first Business Leader’s Award on ending human trafficking. A piece that was originally published by Simerg.com about the Forum that took place in Luxor in 2010 has been updated with remarks made by the Ismaili Imam.
To read the remarks as well as some background information about the forum please click Remarks by Highness the Aga Khan at the International Forum Against Human Trafficking Held in Luxor, Egypt
All related at Ismailimail: Luxor International Forum.
Also watch: Faridoun Hemani at TEDx SugarLand: Human Trafficking – 21st Century Slavery
Excerpt: Though the Nation Media Group (NMG) is majority-owned by public shareholders, the group was founded by ‘His Highness’ the Aga Khan in 1960, who started Kenya’s Taifa and Nation newspapers to provide independent voices during the years preceding the country’s independence. He became Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims in 1957 at the age of 20, succeeding his grandfather. The Aga Khan’s association with the NMG was institutionalised in 2003, and his shares transferred to the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), making it the group’s largest shareholder.
via Kenya’s top five media moguls.
Related: July 2011 visit
His Highness the Aga Khan has been listed for his business acumen and holding a position of authority which provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue.
Source (registration may be required): http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/04/29/the_500_most_powerful_people_in_the_world
Speech delivered by the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, at a ceremony where credentials of new ambassadors to Canada were presented. The new ambassadors / countries were:
Excerpt from the speech:
Pluralism is key, as engaging with our diversity is how our societies are able to evolve, particularly in our globalized world.
His Highness The Aga Khan makes the argument that embracing pluralism can bring us closer to peace, which is so important in this age.
He states that we can embrace pluralism through “tolerance, openness and understanding towards other peoples’ cultures, values and faiths.”
As you take up your new role in this country, I hope that you will have the opportunity to engage not only with Canada, but also with each other to foster a wider appreciation of our diversity.
Link to April 16th media advisory of event, which articulates the context of the event.
Speech, from the web-site of the Governor General of Canada.
Photos from the event where this speech was delivered.
Reconciling Islamic values and traditions with modern times is a critical issue which faces the whole Muslim world. In this four part series, the NanoWisdoms Archive is pleased bring selected quotes from His Highness the Aga Khan outlining his views on the issue as well as his suggestions for addressing it.
In this final instalment, the Aga Khan asks: “Modernity cannot be denied. How do we merge [it with the past]?”. His unequivocal answer is: “The past cannot be repeated. By copying it, it proves that one cannot do better…. We have to come up with new solutions,” and notes that historically “the fundamental reason for the pre-eminence of Islamic civilisations lay … in their ability to discover new knowledge … and to build constructively upon it.”
Previous installments in the series:
To commemorate our second anniversary, we are pleased to bring this virtually unknown, but riveting, interview of His Highness the Aga Khan made three months before his October 1979 visit to Australia, two months after Idi Amin left Uganda in exile, and six months after the 1979 Iranian revolution.
In this lengthy interview the Aga Khan freely discusses a wide range of issues including social values, Islamic law, Iran, Idi Amin, Colonel Gaddafi, Israel and the Palestinian issue, private enterprise, his thoroughbred activities, and more.
In particular, on the issue of Imamat, Mr. Barker first explains that the Aga Khan makes ‘no claim to be divine’ and then asks the intriguing question: ‘But do you believe you are divinely guided?’
Click for the interview at NanoWisdoms:
The July 1979 The Age interview of His Highness the Aga Khan (Melbourne, Australia)
His Highness the Aga Khan, 49th Ismaili Imam and direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, warmly greeting Baroness Margaret Thatcher at the banquet hosted by His Highness in London on July 3, 2008 during his Golden Jubilee Celebrations. Photo: Mawlana Hazar Imam Shah Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan, Golden Jubilee Souvenir, published by Islamic Publications Limited. 2012. Simerg.com Copyright.
Reconciling Islamic values and traditions with modern times is a critical issue which faces the whole Muslim world. In this four part series, the NanoWisdoms Archive is pleased bring selected quotes from His Highness the Aga Khan outlining his views on the issue as well as his suggestions for addressing it.
Building on the first two instalments, “Islam is for all places and all time” and Towards “new understandings of essential principles,” in this third instalment, “Progress does not mean occidentalisation” the Aga Khan cautions that in the headlong rush of Muslims to “modernise” themselves, the West is not a model which should be followed uncritically and the Ummah must “avoid following blindly the course of Western society without taking the trouble to raise guards against the latter’s weaknesses and deficiencies.”
Previous installments in the series:
Reconciling Islamic values and traditions with modern times is a critical issue which faces the whole Muslim world. In this four part series, the NanoWisdoms Archive is pleased to bring selected quotes from His Highness the Aga Khan outlining his views on the issue as well as his suggestions for addressing it.
Building on the first instalment, “Islam is for all places and all time” — where we summarised the Aga Khan’s emphatic rejection that Islam is a “faith of the past” — in this second instalment, Towards “new understandings of essential principles,” the Aga Khan explains his interpretation of Islam as one which is opposed to “formalistic approaches” of interpretation because they “tend to anchor a faith in one time.” On the contrary, the Aga Khan is of the same mind as his predecessor, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah, Aga Khan III, who said: “the interpretation of the precepts and laws which regulate the lives of the Faithful, as laid down in the Qur’an and in the Traditions of the Prophet, can be done at any time and for any generation.”
Previous installments in the series:
Reconciling Islamic values and traditions with modern times is a critical issue which faces the whole Muslim world. In this four part series, the NanoWisdoms Archive is pleased bring selected quotes from His Highness the Aga Khan outlining his views on the issue as well as his suggestions for addressing it.
In the first instalment, “Islam is for all places and all time,” the Aga Khan makes clear his emphatic rejection of the notion that Islam is a “faith of the past.”
Thanks to Amon Abdullo. We have highlighted other reports here.
Also read Noori Mamdani’s article on Bujagali Hydroelectric power project
When we build, we must do more than seek to overcome immediate crises. The urban infrastructure we create in our generation will have to serve not merely the next, but possible many more. We must build with vision for the future of our faith and of our civilisation.
Read the full speech at NanoWisdoms.org
via Amon Abdullo
http://youtu.be/klyfTWTLNCo
YouTube channel of Amon Abdullo has released a 2002 AP video report. Below is the press release link from akdn.org
Kabul, Afghanistan, 23 March 2002 — His Highness the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and Mr. Hamid Karzai, Chairman of the Interim Authority of the Government of Afghanistan, today signed an Agreement of Cooperation for Development that establishes an operating framework for the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) in Afghanistan.
All related blog posts from this event: http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/category/awards/hon-doctorate-uottawa/
