Aga Khan makes rare visit to U.S.

April 15, 2008 by bipin.

By Tricia Escobedo
CNN

updated 2:26 p.m. EDT, Tue April 15, 2008

 

(CNN) — The leaders of three world religions will be visiting the United States this week, and although the media spotlight is focused on Pope Benedict XVI and the Dalai Lama, thousands of Ismaili Muslims are celebrating a rare U.S. tour by the Aga Khan.

The Aga Khan says a “clash of ignorance” has led to friction between Islam and the West.

The Aga Khan doesn’t exactly fit the image that may be expected for the spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims across the world; he usually wears a suit and tie.

But his followers see him as the final authority on interpreting the Quran. One one Muslim scholar said that in that regard, “he is more powerful than the pope.”

The Aga Khan, 71, arrived Friday in Austin, Texas, where he met with Gov. Rick Perry and signed a memorandum with the University of Texas on behalf of his Aga Khan University.

The two schools agreed to share research and cooperate in what was described as “a move towards narrowing the gap between the West and Islam.”

Aga Khan University is an international University with teaching sites in eight countries: Afghanistan, Kenya, Pakistan, Tanzania, Uganda, Syria, Egypt and the United Kingdom.

The agenda for the Aga Khan’s first U.S. tour in 20 years includes stops in Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; and Atlanta, Georgia; places he described as having “particular importance to the Ismaili Community over the last half century.” Watch the Aga Khan’s arrival in the U.S. »

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His trip to the United States and to other Ismaili communities around the world is in celebration of his “Golden Jubilee” — which actually fell last year — marking 50 years as the spiritual leader.

“It’s not very often that the Ismaili community gets this opportunity,” said Saloni Firasta Vastani, a volunteer community leader in Atlanta.

The Aga Khan “has a worldly responsibility in addition to spiritual,” Vastani explained. And that is why the centerpiece of his role is his $150 million nonprofit, nondenominational foundation that focuses on helping the poor.

The imam’s personal life has sometimes overshadowed his message of tolerance, which a spokesman for the U.S. Ismaili community says has “not been well covered” by the media.

“In the Western world, he is not as well-known, except for the British tabloid press, which will talk about his racehorses and the private life of his father,” Dr. Mansoor Saleh said.

The Aga Khan repeatedly focuses on a “clash of ignorance,” not a clash of cultures, that has led to the current friction between Islam and the West.

“The hope is that this visit will provide the impetus … for the West to understand what he does and what he stands for,” Saleh said.

Last year, Forbes Magazine listed the Aga Khan, who lives in the Paris suburbs, as the 10th richest royal in the world, valued at $1 billion. In a previous article, the magazine heralded him as “venture capitalist to the world,” saying the Aga Khan “was early among experts in Third World development to grasp that government handouts and multilaterally funded megaprojects often foster dependence, not self-reliance, in the people they’re meant to help.”

Prince Karim al-Husseini became the current Aga Khan as a 20-year-old Harvard student, after his grandfather passed the title on to him and not his father, Prince Aly Khan, who was once married to the American actress Rita Hayworth.

Despite the Aga Khan’s immense wealth, the imam shuns the title of “philanthropist” because he feels that the Aga Khan Foundation is part of his mandate as a religious leader.

His teachings also stress respecting other cultures and faiths, Vastani said.

“There’s not enough education on both sides, and we’re living in such a global place now, so learning about each other is important,” she said. “That’s the way the Ismaili community views it.”

Dr. Liyakat Takim, who teaches Islamic studies at the University of Denver, said it is not the Aga Khan’s wealthy lifestyle that draws the most criticism from fellow Muslims but his authority to interpret the Quran for Ismaili Muslims.

“Ismailis see him as the final authority in today’s world,” Takim said. “His word is law.”

That means as a spiritual leader, the Aga Khan “is able to reinterpret” the teachings of Islam and has the authority to “nullify or supersede religious practices.”

“That would include things like daily prayers,” Takim said. “Ismailis see themselves firmly within the Islamic tradition but of course other Muslims have problems with that.”

But for many Ismailis, the Aga Khan’s role transcends that of spiritual leader. Those who feel that way include Zarifmo Aslamshoyeva, who credits his foundation with saving her life, as well as the lives of her husband and their two children.

Now an editor with CNN in Atlanta, Aslamshoyeva saw her life as a television news anchor in her native Tajikistan came crashing down after the collapse of the Soviet Union sparked a civil war in her country in 1992.

Aslamshoyeva lived in the remote, mountainous Pamir region of Tajikistan, isolated from the aid that flooded in following a lull in the fighting.

“There was aid in the capital and in the surroundings, but they could not reach us in the mountains,” she said.

Pamir residents normally stockpile food for the harsh winters, but nearly everyone ran out of food in the middle of winter partly due to an influx of refugees fleeing the fighting in the capital, Dushanbe.

“At home, there was no electricity, no food. I would just sit there and look at my children,” she said. Their faces were pale and thin. Without any paychecks from Moscow, many people were forced to beg on the streets.

“By then, who cares if you have an education or if you are a doctor or journalist? We all had nothing, and we were worried about our children.”

It felt like the world had forgotten about her small region and their suffering, she said.

“Pamir was just a little tiny place,” she said. “People know Tajikistan but not Pamir.”

Despite intermittent power, television remained the only way to communicate. She says her life changed on the day she was called in to the tiny TV station to read an announcement telling residents that food from the Aga Khan Foundation had finally arrived in Pamir.

“I never heard of the Aga Khan Foundation, but I had heard of the Aga Khan,” she said. Her grandmother had spoken of “the imam” in hushed tones during the Communist period.

Since that day, Aslamshoyeva said, aid began pouring in, changing her life forever.

“He helped everyone who lived in Tajikistan: Russians, Germans, Jews,” she said. “It didn’t matter what religion you were.” E-mail to a friend

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Thousands of North Texans headed to San Antonio for rare religious event

April 11, 2008 by bipin.

By ANNA M. TINSLEY

Star-Telegram staff writer

Nadir Meharali knows he has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be part of a rare religious event.

Today, the Dallas man is heading to San Antonio to join as many as 10,000 other North Texas Shia Ismaili Muslims who are taking part in the Golden Jubilee, a time to celebrate the 50th year of leadership by their spiritual guide, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV.

“I think practically everyone from here is going,” Meharali said.

As many as 35,000 Shia Ismaili Muslims from across the state may be there to honor Aga Khan, a descendant of the prophet Muhammad, who succeeded his grandfather in 1957 at age 20. He is the 49th hereditary leader of the Shia Ismailis.

Once he reached his 50th year of leadership, Aga Khan, who lives in France, began traveling to different countries for the yearlong celebration, which began July 11, 2007.

Aga Khan tries to meet with state leaders during his stops and talk about initiatives not only to increase access to healthcare and education but also about ways to reduce poverty and find peace.

This month, he plans to visit four states — Texas, California, Illinois and Georgia.

He is scheduled to arrive in Austin today.

On Saturday, Gov. Rick Perry will meet with Aga Khan and hold a special ceremony at the state Capitol to sign a memorandum of understanding between the University of Texas and Aga Khan University, pledging to work together to showcase educational environments, according to information released about the Golden Jubilee.

Saturday night, Perry and his wife, Anita, will host a private gala dinner at an exotic game preserve in Austin to celebrate Aga Khan’s 50 years of service, according to the governor’s office.

By Sunday, Aga Khan will meet with those in the Shia Ismaili Muslim community who gathered at the convention center and Alamodome in San Antonio, during the private celebration that will include speeches, dances, poetry and celebration.

“This is a first in our lifetimes,” Meharali said. “There are a lot of festivities … and a tremendous amount of cooking.”

Prince Karim Aga Kahn IV

Who he is

Aga Khan became the spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims on July 11, 1957, at 20. He succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III.

The 49th hereditary imam, or leader, he is a descendant of the prophet Muhammad and his cousin and son-in-law Hazrat Ali, who was the first spiritual leader of the Muslim community.

Born in Geneva in 1936, he grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, and graduated from Harvard in 1959 with an honors degree in Islamic history.

The community he leads

The Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, known as the Ismailis, are part of the Shiite branch of Islam.

They believe that after the prophet’s death, Hazrat Ali became the spiritual leader, known as an imam. That leadership continues through his descendants.

There are about 15 million Ismaili Muslims living in about 25 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe, as well as central and South Asia, East Africa and the Middle East.

Source: Golden Jubilee committee

atinsley@star-telegram.com
ANNA M. TINSLEY, 817-390-7610

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April 10, 2008 by bipin.

Statesman.com

Texas welcome for imam

By The Editorial Board | Thursday, April 10, 2008, 04:41 PM

Had you read or heard that the governor of Texas was to break bread with a Muslim imam only 10 years ago, you might have thought it highly improbable. It’s a new Texas, however, and a new world.

Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to welcome the Aga Khan, a religious leader with a global reach and immense wealth with activities that include a formal dinner on Saturday. The imam is celebrating 50 years as leader of the world’s Shia Imam Ismaili Muslims with a world tour, and Texas is the first stop on the U.S. leg of it. The current Aga Khan, 71, has led the sect since 1957.

His Texas followers number 25,000 to 30,000 and are engaged in a wide variety of businesses and professions. They don’t generally attract a lot of attention, but the visit by the Aga Khan and the recognition by the top state elected official will change that a little.

The sect led by the Aga Khan values self-reliance, tolerance and human worth. In addition to tithes from followers, the Aga Khan finances the sect’s activities with more than $1 billion in sales from a variety of businesses, including banks, hotels and newspapers. The sect also builds hospitals and health care facilities.

The immense wealth of the Aga Khan has stirred controversy in the past, including from other Muslims who have disassociated themselves from the Ismailis.

The first of the Ismailis arrived in Texas 40 or so years ago and are concentrated in the state’s metropolitan areas: Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin and San Antonio.

The visit to Texas is clearly a message that the Aga Khan wants to pierce stereotypes of Muslims that have grown since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by extremist Muslims in the United States. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan stoke suspicions of Muslims in this country. Lamenting that climate of suspicion, the Aga Khan - who was educated at Harvard - has described the religious conflict “as a clash of ignorance.”

Though the visit is more symbol than substance to official Texas, the participation by Perry sends a positive message to both the Ismailis and their fellow Texans.

It’s a message of understanding and tolerance that we would all be wise to heed: Peace be with all of us.

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Royal visit to draw 35,000 to town

April 6, 2008 by bipin.

San Antonio will host a massive religious gathering just days after the Final Four crowds leave town.The event, called the Golden Jubilee, will bring a gathering of 35,000 Ismaili Muslims and their spiritual leader Prince Karim Aga Khan to the Alamodome and the Convention Center starting Friday.

“His Highness” is considered a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammad, and his visits with large gatherings of his congregation are rare.

“He hasn’t visited the congregation collectively in about 21 years. This is a major and religious occasion to meet the spiritual leader,” said Dr. Mansoor N. Saleh of Georgia, who’s a member of communications council for the U.S. Ismaili community.

Event coordinators first looked into having their event at Reliant Park in Houston, but the center was unavailable. So they came to San Antonio a few weeks ago looking for space. A lot of space.

“The city benefits from having the Alamodome readily available,” said Michael Sawaya, the city’s director of convention, sports and entertainment facilities. “The economic impact of this is going to be like an Alamo Bowl. We were only given several weeks to plan this when normally a group this size will plan for four years.”

City officials say this is the largest three-day event San Antonio has seen since HemisFair in 1968. It’s estimated the group could spend about $37 million while here.

Sawaya said even though visitors here for religious gatherings typically don’t spend as much as business travelers, this group is affluent.

But they didn’t need as much hotel space — they have a block of 3,000 rooms — because many Texas Ismailis will be staying with family and friends in San Antonio during the event.

The three-day event will include a visit on April 13 from the Aga Khan — the spiritual leader of the Ismailis, which is a Shiite branch of Islam.

Born in 1936 in Geneva, the Aga Khan spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya, and graduated from Harvard in 1959.

(Bloomberg News file photo)

Prince Karim Aga Khan, shown in 2005, leads 12 million to 15 million Ismaili Muslims, with an estimated 1,500 to 1,700 in San Antonio.

The Aga Khan leads a community of 12 million to 15 million Ismaili Muslims living in some 25 countries, according to the official Web site of the Ismaili community.

During the Golden Jubilee, which began July 11, 2007, and will continue until July 11, 2008, the Aga Khan will visit numerous countries, including stops in the U.S.

The Aga Khan also is making visits in April to Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. The San Antonio visit is considered a private event for Texas Ismailis.

Amin Makhani, an owner of an Asian grocery store in Northeast San Antonio, said he has cousins coming from Houston and Dallas just to attend the gathering.

“You can say he’s like a pope. This is the best opportunity for our people to see him,” said Makhani, who estimated there are about 1,500 to 1,700 Ismailis in San Antonio.

Makhani’s family is so excited about the visit they have been celebrating for the last 15 days, he added.

Another person who’s happy about the Aga Khan’s arrival is Greg Kowalski, president and owner of The RK Group, a local catering company.

RK Group is taking on the mammoth task of serving more than 200,000 meals in 60 hours. This is one of the largest events the firm has had to handle on such short notice.

“This piece of business came about suddenly and to amass this much food and supplies to feed roughly 200,000 meals in a matter of 60 hours is really an incredible logistic opportunity,” Kowalski said.

Local hotel officials said despite the short notice, the group is coming at a great time.

“It’s a weekend piece of business, and it’s short term. It’s a nice group to have right after the Final Four,” said Scott Lane, the Grand Hyatt director of sales and marketing, who said the event will use a couple of hundred rooms at the new luxury hotel.

While the ultimate event features Aga Khan, the closed festivities also include traditional dancing, youth activities, poetry and live devotional music.

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