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Speech by Hazar Imam at Banquet in Damascus during the Golden Jubilee visit to Syria
August 23-30 2008

Dear President and Leaders of the Jamat

I would like to begin these short comments by sharing with you My sense of immense happiness on this Golden Jubilee visit to Syria.
It has brought to Me very, very great happiness because I can remember 1957 very well. I can remember 1958, 1959, 1960.- years in which Syria and the Jamat in Syria had very great problems ahead of them. And I compare where we are today and I say to myself “Alhamdullilah” we have made real progress.

Hazar Imam addressed the Syrian Jamati Leadership at a banquet in Damascus during His 2008 Golden Jubilee visit to Syria August 23-30-2008

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLpojwTRKZo

INTERVIEWER: REEM HADDAD

Reem Haddad: Your Highness, is there a message that you would like to leave the Syrian people?

AK: Well first of all, the respect and admiration that I have for Syria in its historic role within the Ummah. Secondly the notion that progress does not mean occidentalisation. Progress in the Ummah means moving forward in quality of life, but not giving up your identity, not giving up your value systems. Indeed our values systems are massively important for the future. [Emphasis original]

In a strategic move this week, the state Hermitage Museum announced that Russia has partnered with Syria to restore 20 cultural artifacts from the National Museum of Palmyra that ISIS attempted to destroy over the last four years. A coalition will also look at rebuilding the historic sites of Palmyra damaged or destroyed by ISIS forces.

Children present His Highness the Aga Khan with flowers upon his arrival in Syria. Syrian Minister for Tourism, Sadallah Agha Al-Qala (Courtesy Minister) is overlooking.
AKDN / Gary Otte

Aleppo: On the domed roof of a historical market in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, architect Bassel Al Daher moves between workers painstakingly working to erase the scars of war.

Men wearing vests and helmets repair parts of the roof still bearing visible traces of the four-year-long battle for the former rebel stronghold.

They cover its charred surface with a fresh coat of white paint as part of a wider effort to rehabilitate the Saqatiya market, or souk in Arabic.

I would wish to begin my closing remarks by first of all expressing my sincere thanks and deep feeling of gratitude on behalf of everyone connected to the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and from myself to the President of the Republic of Syria and to the Prime Minister and his Government for the most generous, thoughtful and constructive way in which they have enabled the Aga Khan Award for Architecture to hold its prize-giving ceremony and related events here in Aleppo.

I would wish to begin my closing remarks by first of all expressing my sincere thanks and deep feeling of gratitude on behalf of everyone connected to the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and from myself to the President of the Republic of Syria and to the Prime Minister and his Government for the most generous, thoughtful and constructive way in which they have enabled the Aga Khan Award for Architecture to hold its prize-giving ceremony and related events here in Aleppo.

Hazar Imam meets with religious leaders in Damascus 2004-02-15

ga Khan Trust for Culture calls for condemnation of destruction to be reinforced by help on the ground

PALERMO - While the war continues in Syria, with regime bombing on besieged Eastern Ghouta and clashes between the Turkish army and the Kurdish YPG in the north, reconstruction has begun in Aleppo. A group of Italian engineers and experts have been transferred to the Syrian city to work with locals and teach them the necessary skills to restore the UNESCO World Heritage sites of the souq, minaret and Umayyad mosque.

Superflex’s Conceptual Hospital Exhibition Gets Put to Life-Saving Use—in a Syrian Operating Room
Victims of the raging civil war in Syria are undergoing surgery assisted by a work of conceptual art.

His Highness the Aga Khan greeting leaders of the Ismaili Community and the AKDN in Syria, upon his arrival at Damascus Airport. He is accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Abdullah Al-Dardari.
AKDN/Gary Otte

H.H. The Aga Khan meets with Muslim leaders in Damascus 2004-02-15