Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

THE Aga Khan has made a bid for one of the most desirable sites in London on which to build an Islamic cultural centre. But his offer of

ISMAILIS, a Muslim group comprising 17 million followers worldwide, are an influential, liberal and articulate minority in the Islamic world who form part of the Shia tradition - those who claim that only a descendant of Ali, the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, could be an imam or leader of the community.

What the two sides promiseGuy's and St Thomas's Hospital NHS Trust:
'The Board believes that the block remains an integral part of the overall site and should remain within the public sector's ownership and use. The Board is implacably opposed to the sale of this site to an outside party.'
To include: School of Nursing; Chemical Incident Response Unit; Communicable Disease Surveillance Unit for London and the South East; Medical Toxicology Unit.
Aga Khan Development Network:

The Aga Khan outlined plans on Friday to build the English-speaking world's biggest Islamic academic centre in the historic heart of London.
'It's a gift to London, it would bring a real enrichment of the city's cultural life,' his private affairs director Iain Cheyne told Reuters, confirming a 24 million pound ($35 million) offer to develop the prime site on London's river Thames.

Prince Karim Aga Khan, 66, heads a largely Third World-orientated network of charitable institutes and businesses. Now he wants to make his mark on London.

The hopes of one of the world's richest men to build a museum on one of London's most prized sites suffered a blow yesterday when the site owner said it would prefer to sell to the NHS.
The Aga Khan had selected Block Nine, a disused Victorian hospital building on the Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament, to house the largest collection of Islamic art in the English-speaking world.

Boasting some of the finest examples of Middle Eastern painting over the centuries, the museum would be the latest multimillion-pound addition to the string of cultural complexes lining the South Bank.