May 22, 2008 by bipin.

Aga Khan lays foundation stone for Jamatkhana

Staff Correspondent

Visiting Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims, and Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury jointly laid the foundation for the Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre in Dhaka yesterday, which will be used as a place for congregational gathering of the Ismailis and their administrative functions.

“We see this new addition to the Dhaka cityscape as a symbol of our continuing historic commitment to this country and further reinforcement of the warm relations which the Ismaili people have enjoyed here,” Prince Karim said at the foundation stone laying ceremony.

The centre, which will be built in Bashundhara Residential Area, will also bring the community members together at seminars, lectures, cultural and educational events and other programmes.

Saying that the Jamatkhana will be a place of peace and tranquillity, filled with the spirit of humility and prayer, the Aga Khan said: “It will not be a place for conceit or self-satisfaction, but a place for search and enlightenment.”

Recalling his grandfather Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan’s call to Ismailis to settle in the then East Pakistan after the partition of subcontinent, he said the commitment to Bangladesh has continued in more recent years, often channelled through the activities of the Aga Khan Development Network.

He said the Jamatkhana and the Aga Khan Academy in Dhaka will play complementary roles as they will work to dispel ignorance, cultivate a cosmopolitan outlook and nourish the cause of peace and harmony among peoples and cultures within this country and around the world.

“Bangladesh has made a courageous commitment through the years to values which have grown out of Islamic traditions, but which are of universal applicability: a dedication to human dignity; to taking and giving the hand of friendship; to humility in the all-enveloping divine presence which impels one to celebrate God-given differences, rather than denigrating them, and to the persistence of hope, and to the resilience which hope bestows,” he said.

Bss adds: Education Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman yesterday called on visiting Prince Karim Aga Khan at his hotel suite.

During the meeting, he proposed a forum for holding annual exchange of views session, which would play a pioneering role in the country’s education sector. The prince supported the proposal, an official handout said.

Aga Khan suggested further promotion of the university research activities and improvement of the child-level madrasa education. He also recommended inclusion of moral education, culture and subjects related to freedom from fundamentalism in the curriculum.

Prince Aga Khan assured of providing all possible assistance in the education sector of Bangladesh, the handout said

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May 14, 2008 by bipin.

NEW DELHI: The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili community, yesterday called on President Pratibha Patil and discussed a host of issues, including reforms in madrassa education and the conservation of monuments in India.
The Aga Khan, who is on a week-long trip to India, met Patil for about a half-hour. According to official sources, the 70-year-old leader, also known as Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, spoke enthusiastically about the need for reforms in Islamic religious schools.
“He talked about the possibility of replicating a programme of reform of madrassa education at the Aga Khan’s Educational Institution in Hyderabad,” said an official.
The Ismaili leader also visited Humayun’s Tomb and Sundar Nursery to survey the progress of a project for the revitalisation of several cultural heritage buildings located in Nizamuddin area in the heart of New Delhi. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Aga Khan Foundation forged a partnership with several Indian government agencies, including the Archaeological Survey of India, for the preservation of the historic buildings in 2004. The project is modelled on the Bagh-e-Babur integrated conservation project being implemented by the Aga Khan Trust in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He also met opposition Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani.
The Aga Khan arrived here on Monday on a visit that marks his 50th year as the imam of over 25mn Ismailis worldwide.
He met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice President Hamid Ansari and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday.
The Aga Khan, one of the world’s pre-eminent philanthropists and businessmen who runs one of the largest private development networks focusing on the poor, will go to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Ahmedabad before he heads to Dhaka on May 19.
In Mumbai, the Aga Khan - one of the world’s wealthiest Muslim investors - will get a grand reception from the 6,000-odd Ismailis in the city.
In Gujarat, he will meet Chief Minister Narendra Modi and will also visit Siddhpur, a town in northern Gujarat that is home to a large Ismaili community.
The Aga Khan last visited India in September 2006, when he laid the foundation of the Aga Khan Academy for Excellence in Education in Hyderabad.
Earlier, in 2004 the spiritual leader gave away the Aga Khan Award for Architecture at a presentation ceremony at Humayun’s Tomb here. – IANS

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