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

The National Building Museum has awarded its Vincent J. Scully Prize to His Highness the Aga Khan. The prize recognizes individuals who raise awareness of the built environment.
'The Aga Khan is the perfect recipient of this award,' says David Schwarz, chairman of the prize jury. 'Our prize is dedicated to rewarding, recognizing, and publicizing people who have made a significant intellectual contribution to the built environment. It's meant to encourage people to talk about the built environment as a whole, not just about buildings.'

All the good guys are here,' remarked architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, gazing at a goodly number of his peers attending Tuesday's award dinner in the National Building Museum honoring His Highness Prince Karim Aga Kahn IV for fostering design excellence, urban and rural revitalization and historic preservation in countries where Muslims have a major presence.

Honoured Guests,Ladies and Gentlemen:

I believe profoundly that architecture is not just about building. It is a means of improving people's quality of life. At its best, it should mirror the plurality of cultural traditions and the diverse needs of communities, both urban and rural. At the same time it must employ modern technologies to help fulfill desirable aspirations for the future.

Muslim sect to open door to its world Conference cites values of IsmailisIn the last two years, friends and acquaintances have asked Rafiq Ghaswala about the difference between the two main branches of Islam, the life of the Prophet Muhammad and the origins of the Koran, Islam's holy book. But few people have asked him about the Ismaili sect of Shiite Islam to which he belongs, a minority within a minority among the world's 1 billion Muslims. Few, in fact, have heard of Ismailis, or their spiritual leader, the Aga Khan.

For nearly 50 years, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV has striven to overcome the celebrity gloss of his life story.To 20 million Ismaili Muslims in Asia and Africa, the 68-year-old Aga Khan is the 49th hereditary imam, a spiritual leader who traces his lineage directly from the prophet Muhammad.

The Aga Khan with National Building Museum Chair Carolyn Schwenker Brody, above, before receiving the fifth Vincent Scully Prize at the museum last night for his decades-long efforts to reenergize design in the Islamic world and to preserve historic sites. At left, the prince chats with Scully and his wife, Catherine Lynn.Photo Credit: Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post
Related Article: Aga Khan, Jet-Setting on a Higher Plane, page C01

Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:First I would like to thank Charles Correa and Jim Wolfensohn for their kind words.

Charles, through your work you have made an immense contribution to the built environment. Your buildings have brought timeless elegance to societies in the East and the West. Your inspirational use of their many languages of design will speak powerfully to many generations hence. I would also like to sincerely thank you for your contribution over many years to the Aga Khan Award for Architect

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that it will donate about 5,500 metric tons of U.S. agricultural commodities to the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) for use in Tajikistan under the Food for Progress program. AKF, a private voluntary organization, will directly distribute the donated commodities to an estimated 206,000 people in the Autonomous Oblast of Gorno-Badakhshan. The donation will include approximately 450 metric tons of whole dry milk, 850 tons of vegetable oil, 700 tons of corn-soy blend, and 3,500 tons of wheat flour. AKF plans to provide rations to about 206,000 people.

Yo-Yo Ma was fascinated by the wealth of music along what was once the Silk Road. So the cellist conceived a plan to weave together the multifarious threads, as he explains to Michael Church

There's the stereotype of the Muslim woman -- silent and withdrawn behind her veil, obsequious when called upon, unable to think for herself, much less drive a car.
And then there's Shabnam Lutafali. Besides being a devout Muslim, the Pakistan native is a doctor of economics and a professor at the University of Houston-Downtown. She also serves as the president of the Southwest regional board for the Ismaili Muslims, followers of the Aga Khan.

Like most Ismailis, Lutafali believes that being Muslim and being a competent, active woman are not mutually exclusive.

Today, President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton and Secretary of State MadeleineAlbright will convene the first White House Conference on Culture and
Diplomacy to focus on the critical role of culture in the formulation and
conduct of foreign policy in this era of globalization. The conference
will bring together diplomats, artists, scholars and representatives from
the private and non-profit sectors, for a discussion on how to better
integrate cultural concerns into the day-to-day conduct of American foreign
policy and strengthen cultural exchange programs that serve as invaluable

An Islamic spiritual leader has united with Harvard, MIT and six Middle Eastern universities to create a Web site its creators hope will advance architecture throughout the Islamic world.
The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims, also hopes to link war-torn places such as Sarajevo and Kabul to the Web, empower women and foster East-West dialogue through the site, which took four years to create.

Close to 1,000 Muslim health care professionals from around the country will meet in Atlanta this weekend to discuss medical treatment and training programs in developing countries.
The doctors, nurses and researchers are with the Ismaili Health Professional Association, a Houston-based group that runs clinics and organizes missions in Asia and Africa.

Ismailis represent about 15 million of the more than 1 billion Muslims worldwide. They are a subset of Shiite Muslims, who are a separate, smaller Muslim community than the majority Sunni Muslims.

The Hindu American Foundation wrote a letter to His Highness the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslim community, commending him for his recent $40 million investment for the establishment of the Global Centre for Pluralism in Canada.
April 30, 2005

To His Highness the Aga Khan,

1SRG and Western Disaster Center team to provide training for FOCUSMOFFET FIELD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 29, 2003--1SRG (1st Special Response Group), an all-volunteer, rapid-deployment first response unit returned from conducting an assessment for Focus Humanitarian Assistance (FOCUS) in Tajikistan. The scope of the project included prevention, mitigation, and preparedness but primarily dealt with assessing the current disaster response capabilities.

Royalty has a knack for putting architecture in the spotlight. Denmark's Queen Margrethe II is known for bestowing a triennial prize, underwritten by the Carlsberg brewery, on leading architects from Europe and Japan. In Britain, Prince Charles is famous for criticizing modern buildings and starting an architecture school dedicated to neo-traditional design.

Approximately 5,500 people participated in the Chicago Partnership Walk yesterday at Soldier Field to show their support for international cooperation and for ending poverty around the world. Over $425,000 was raised in Chicago through this event. Partnership Walk is an initiative of Aga Khan Foundation U.S.A. (AKF USA) and is organized by its network of volunteers in communities across the United States. Partnership Walk has been held since 1995 in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles.

President Bush has said that the US role in Afghanistan will not end when our immediate military goals are achieved. What remains to be done there?
First, Afghanistan will need a government. To be acceptable, a new regime in Kabul must meet four conditions: First, it must represent the entire country and not just one or a couple of its many ethnic groups. Second, it must be out of the terrorism business. Third, it must be committed to wiping out the opium poppy crop. And fourth, it must meet some minimal international standard of human rights.

Prince Karim Aga Khan, a billionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader of some 20 million Muslims worldwide, stressed the importance of education in the age of globalization in Atlanta as he helped the International Baccalaureate celebrate its 40th anniversary.

The International Baccalaureate, or IB, has programs for students aged 3-19 at 2,300 participating schools in 126 countries, said Monique Seefried, chair of the IB Board of Governors.

Ismailis celebrate Golden Jubilee in Los Angeles, April 2008.