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

The Aga Khan, billionaire spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, has laid the foundation stone for a 50-million-dollar educational centre in southern India.

"The key to future progress in the developing world will be its ability to identify, to develop, and to retain expert and effective home-grown leadership," said the Aga Khan at the ceremony in Hyderabad.

"Too many of those who ought to be leading their communities in the hopeful world of tomorrow are being left behind in the real world of today."

The clash between the Islamic world and the west had its origins in "ignorance" that could be contained through a broad study of world cultures including Islamic civilisations, the Aga Khan, the spiritual head of Ismaili Muslims, said today.

"It is a clash of ignorances...There is a need to study and understand Muslim civilisations, a subject which is often overlooked in some parts of the world today," he told a gathering here after laying the foundation stone for the Aga Khan Academy in neighbouring Ranga Reddy district.

Ignorance and rejectionism lie at the heart of the conflict between the Western and the Islamic worlds, the Aga Khan, spiritual head of the world's more than 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, said.

Prince Karim Aga Khan urged a renewed effort to promote pluralism and tolerance through education, while also addressing festering political disputes and desperate poverty which have contributed to rising extremism.

Talking to a small group of journalists in New Delhi, he said the world was grappling with "a conflict of ignorance".

Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual head of the Ismaili community and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Friday laid foundation stone for the Aga Khan Academy on the city outskirts.

The Aga Khan Development Network and Aga Khan Foundation are developing the Academy, an international school of excellence, at a cost of $50 million on 100 acres of land allotted by the state government at Kancha Imarat in Ranga Reddy district.

Clash of ignorance not clash of civilisations: Aga Khan

Prince Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Ismaili community, Friday rejected the notion that tension and violence in today's world was a result of clash of civilisations, especially between the Islamic world and the West.

'I disagree with this assessment. In my view it is a clash of ignorance which is to blame,' he told a gathering at the foundation laying ceremony of the Aga Khan Academy for Excellence in Education on the city outskirts.

Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, the spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims around the world, on Friday said he didn't think that current global tensions have been caused by a clash of civilization between the Islamic world and Christians.

"In my view it's a clash of ignorance which is to blame," the Aga Khan said after laying the foundation stone of a US$50 million (€41.6 million) Aga Khan Academy for Excellence in Education in Hyderabad, the capital of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

Aga Khan IV, the spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims, on Wednesday called on President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed issues of mutual interest.

Aga Khan, the 49th Imam of Ismaili Muslims, also held a joint meeting with Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy, his Minister of State Ajay Makan and Tourism Minister Ambika Soni.

The meeting with the Prime Minister held at Dr. Singh's 7 Race Course residence lasted over half-an-hour, officials said.

Islamic spiritual leader Aga Khan, who runs a large number of philanthropic institutions in India, on Wednesday met President A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed developmental issues.

Khan, who is here on a four-day visit, also called on Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

The spiritual leader is slated to meet Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha L K Advani and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi today.

The 49th hereditary Imam of Shia Ismaili Muslims, Aga Khan met President APJ Abdul Kalam in the capital on Wednesday at the sprawling Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Earlier, he met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

The spiritual leader, who is on a three day visit to India, has a host of programmes lined up in Delhi and Hyderabad.

Khan will meet the Vice- President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Union ministers S Jaipal Reddy, Amibika Soni and Ajay Makan. He is also expected to meet President A P J Abdul Kalam.

President A P J Abdul Kalam today suggested an integrated approach to accelerate the pace of development in three key sectors -- education, health and rural development.
Kalam made the suggestion at a meeting with a delegation headed by the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Later the President had a one-to-one luncheon meeting with Khan.

The spiritual leader informed the President that his trust had undertaken various projects in the three sectors in India and adopted 600 villages in Gujarat for their development.

The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (EKFEB), which is the single largest shareholder and holds 49 per cent of Development Credit Bank Ltd equity, is looking at hiking its stake in DCB, post the Government of India notification that the FDI in Indian banks can go up to 74 per cent.
'The board meeting of DCB is expected to be held during this month a positive decision is expected on this front,' said H V Sheshadri, managing director & CEO of the bank.

Following the central government notification permitting 74 per cent foreign investment in Indian banks, the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED)

From doom to bloomA collaboration between the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and ASI sees the garden at Humayun's Tomb get a much needed facelift, says Maitreyee handique

Published : April 19, 2003

'I am not the star of the show,' Ritesh Nanda protests as he shies away from the range of our cameraman Amit Kumar's focus, 'the star is behind you.'

The star, in question, is the garden at Humayun's Tomb, a star destination on a traveller's itinerary, bang in the nerve centre of teeming Delhi. The site was declared a world heritage monument by UNESCO in 1992.

Fountains come alive in Indian 'paradise garden'It was an attempt to create a glimpse of heaven on earth, but for centuries the paradise garden of Humayun's Tomb -- the inspiration behind India's celebrated Taj Mahal -- lay in neglect in the midst of Delhi.

Now conservationists have restored the grounds of the massive bulbous-domed tomb of Mughal Emperor Humayun who plunged down a stairway to his death in 1556 rushing to answer the Muslim call to prayer.

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, center, gestures at the inauguration of the newly restored gardens of emperor Humayun's Tomb built in 1565-72 AD in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, April 15, 2003. The Aga Khan Trust funded the revitalization of the gardens, pathways, fountains and water channels surrounding Humayun's Tomb, which is a world heritage site. Others in the pictures are not identified. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)