The Aga Khan will visit Vancouver on Nov. 25 for a Golden Jubilee anniversary meeting with members of B.C.’s Shia Ismaili Muslim community.

“The community is very excited about having His Highness visit,” said Farid Damji, a volunteer with the Ismaili Council of B.C.

The Aga Khan has been spiritual leader, or Imam, to the ethnically-diverse community of Ismailis for the past 50 years.

Many of his 20,000 followers in the province are expected to gather at B.C. Place Stadium for a ceremonial afternoon.

“He will deliver a message and meet community leaders,” said Damji.

The trip is part of a worldwide tour this year. The Canadian portion runs Nov. 18-25 and Dec. 5-6.

Source: http://www.canada.com/theprovince
/news/story.html?id=a1f879fe-0e41-4bbe-
94fe-d59a0306a319

By Rachel Morarjee

In a deeply undignified start to my interview with one of the world’s most famous spiritual leaders, I am pressing my face against the glass of the Ismaili Centre in South Kensington, gesticulating wildly as I try to catch the eye of the dark-suited security man. It seems to me he is, perhaps reasonably, deliberately ignoring the madwoman outside.

As I’ve already tried pushing the locked door, I eventually stand on the street corner and rummage inelegantly in my bag to find my phone. After a long wait, I manage to get hold of a friend who works for His Highness the Aga Khan, who lets me in.

My requests for a lunch or breakfast meeting had been deflected by the Aga Khan’s aides, who gave me the unusual excuse that the leader of 20m Ismaili Muslims guards his privacy so zealously that he would be reluctant to reveal what he eats at mealtimes. So we settle on a coffee.

Tall, in a grey suit and a burgundy tie, the Aga Khan, 71, would blend seamlessly into a crowd of London commuters. He welcomes me with a smile and says, acknowledging our tricky discussions about this interview: “Not breakfast, not lunch, not dinner, but coffee. What would you like to drink?”

The room is impersonal but, as I sit down on a plush chair, I look out and see a lush flower-filled internal roof garden, a courtyard where water flows into a fountain.

I met the Aga Khan twice during my three-year stint as a reporter for the FT in Afghanistan so I am used to the atmosphere of stiff formality that surrounds him. After 51 years, he is presumably used to it too. In July 1957, at the age of 20, he took over from his grandfather as leader of the Ismailis, who are followers of the Shia Muslim tradition.

A woman brings the Aga Khan a white coffee while I opt for a cup without milk or sugar, which I try to balance on the arm of the chair and drink. I am dismayed to see no sign of anything edible.

The Aga Khan’s thoroughbred passion
As the most successful racehorse owner-breeder in France, the Aga Khan has won just about everything, several times over, writes Rachel Pagones. And while racing is a fast and furious sport – the verdict delivered in around two and a half minutes for races such as the Epsom Derby – breeding the horses for these contests can be an agonisingly slow process. Patience is the Aga Khan’s hallmark.

He inherited the business from his father, Prince Aly, and grandfather, the Aga Khan III, who bought his first thoroughbreds in Deauville in 1921 and went on to win the Epsom Derby five times. For his part, Prince Aly became the first owner in Britain to win £100,000 in a season in 1959, the year before he was killed in a car accident outside Paris.

The present Aga Khan’s “families” of broodmares often produce a top-class winner after three or four generations on the backburner. He is the least commercial of the large, independently wealthy owner-breeders, including Sheikh Mohammed, ruler of Dubai, Prince Khalid Abdullah of the Saudi royal family, and John Magnier of Coolmore Stud in Ireland, all of whom promote many of their own stallions for use by other breeders. He has only four stallions on his six properties in France and Ireland.

Money also helps. The Aga Khan’s operation breeds from its own stock, but makes a big purchase when a rare opportunity arises. The most recent was in 2005 when the Aga Khan bought the late Jean-Luc Lagardère’s bloodstock holdings, including two studs and close to 200 horses, for an industry estimate of between €40m and €50m.

The Aga Khan has had four winners of both the Epsom and Irish Derby, including Shergar, the most famous horse in Britain during his lifetime – he won the Epsom Derby by a record ten lengths in 1981 – but this achievement has been largely replaced in the public mind by the memory of the horse’s bizarre kidnapping in 1983, a year after he was retired to stud in Ireland with a valuation of £10m. The most thorough reports conclude it was an IRA plot, and the horse was killed not long afterwards, probably because the kidnappers had trouble handling him.

The Aga Khan’s current star is an unbeaten filly named Zarkava. The favourite for next weekend’s Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, she descends from Petite Etoile, a grey filly who starred on British tracks just before and after Prince Aly’s death. Petite Etoile’s great-great-grandmother was Mumtaz Mahal, one of the first and most important horses purchased by the Aga Khan III for 9,100 guineas in 1922.

I feel slightly on show now, as there are a lot of people crowded into the room with us. There is a Paris-based PR man, an older Ismaili man and, most disconcertingly of all, a young woman with a notepad, poised to write down everything I say.

The Aga Khan wears a suit even when he’s travelling and working in Islamic countries. It’s not a look that we are used to seeing on Muslim spiritual leaders, so I decide to start by asking whether his clothing attracts criticism in the Muslim world. The woman with the notepad starts scribbling furiously. Uh-oh, I think, and I get the question thrown back to me: “You have lived in a Muslim country. Are you aware of any requirement for an Imam to wear a particular type of clothing? There are traditions but are you aware of any theological requirement?”

I ask again, and this time the Aga Khan replies, “I have never sensed that as a problem. Imams in sub-saharan Africa dress differently than Imams in the Middle East, who dress differently from Imams in central Asia.” He adds that for ceremonial occasions, he wears a traditional robe and Astrakhan hat – a look favoured by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

This question of clothing goes to the heart of the paradox of the Aga Khan. While he’s a spiritual leader to millions of Muslims, he is best-known in the west as the highest-profile racehorse owner in France, where he lives.

The other unusual thing about this spiritual leader is how staggeringly rich he is. The Aga Khan’s personal wealth is estimated at $1bn but the Ismaili community is tight-lipped about how much of the Aga Khan’s money is his own and how much is ring-fenced for religious and development work.

I ask him how he reconciles such great wealth with having so many impoverished followers in many parts of the developing world. “Well, I think first of all you have to reposition the statement about having great wealth. I would say, frankly, that’s nonsense,” he says, smiling emphatically.

What is in no doubt is that the Aga Khan comes from a privileged background. He was born Karim al-Hussayni in Geneva in 1936 and was known as Prince Karim. After school in Switzerland, he went to the US and graduated from Harvard in 1959 with a BA honours degree in Islamic history.

His parents divorced in 1949 and his father later married Hollywood actress Rita Hayworth. The couple were a favourite of the gossip columns, although the marriage did not survive long. The unwelcome spotlight at that time might be part of why the Aga Khan now guards his privacy so carefully.

The Aga Khan title was granted to the family by the Shah of Persia in the 1830s after he had married his daughter to the Aga Khan’s great-great-grandfather. The man sitting opposite me is only the fourth to hold the title. As I sip my rapidly cooling coffee, I settle back and hear how the myth of fabulous family wealth was created when the third Aga Khan, grandfather of Aga Khan IV, was given his weight in gold during his golden jubilee celebrations in 1936.

Although Aga Khan III was only 5ft 5in, he tipped the scales at 220lb and the donations added up to $125,000 – a vast fortune in 1936. The ceremony of sitting on the scales with the gold made a great impression on the British public at the time. “In the west, this was seen as some sort of fantastic ceremonial, and this was because India at the time was ceremonial.” The current Aga Khan did not have to endure anything like this during his own golden jubilee celebrations during 2007 and 2008, not least because the 1930s gold made a solid bedrock for investments.

Ismailis have also traditionally paid a tithe to their Imams. The Aga Khan tells me that money raised by Ismaili followers does not end up in his pocket. “There is a great difference between wealth which comes from the faith and is used for the faith and personal wealth used for the individual. The Imam has responsibility for significant resources but they in no way cover the needs we have, and never will,” he says.

The Aga Khan inherited shares in corporations, banks, trusts and oil from his grandfather in 1957 and, over the past five decades, he has built a vast business development network by investing in poor and conflict-torn parts of the globe. He is the key shareholder in many of the projects but his profits are reinvested in the businesses, which are often run by members of the Ismaili community.

He began with newspaper investments in east Africa in the 1960s and now runs investment ventures tightly linked to development work that funds schools, hospitals and architectural projects.

In Afghanistan, I saw how the success of the Aga Khan’s projects stood in contrast to the bumbling efforts of many western governments. He owns stakes in the country’s largest telephone network, and a five-star hotel but has also renovated ancient mosques, gardens and citadels as well as running educational and agricultural projects.

The Aga Khan says he sees his role as a venture capitalist who specialises in difficult environments, laying the foundations of projects to entice other investors. The Geneva-based Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (Akfed) runs more than 90 for-profit businesses and employs 36,000 people.

“There is no point going into economies that are wealthy and have their own resources, so we go into the really poor ones. If you try to put social development ahead of economic support, it doesn’t work. You have to do both together.

“A community whose economics don’t change is not one that can support community structures, education, healthcare, it doesn’t have the wherewithal,” he says.

The Aga Khan uses a lot of the same jargon used by development workers, mentioning “human resources” and “capacity building”. I am familiar with this way of talking from my time in Kabul but have always felt it a shame that it means that speakers often convey nothing of the real excitement involved in seeing a project take off and become an independent success.

His profits are reinvested in the Akfed businesses and the rest is paid in dividends to the other joint venture partners. These include private equity firm Blackstone, which has co-invested in a hydroelectric damn in Uganda, and Swedish telecoms group TeliaSonera, which holds a stake in Afghanistan’s largest telephone network,

Roshan has gone from strength to strength, its mobile business bolstered by the fact that it is impossible to lay landlines in a country so laced with landmines. But his five-star Serena Hotel in Kabul has attracted criticism for its opulence in a city where most people don’t have electricity and running water.

“The nature of what we do is high-risk,” the Aga Khan says, with characteristic understatement. I ask whether he thinks this long-term view is key to his success and he says that many projects can take 25 years to come to fruition. He cites a hospital in Pakistan that now produces world class doctors a quarter of a century after it opened. It would be hard to find western donors who would remain with a project for that long.

During his 51 years as Imam, he has watched the collapse of the Soviet Union, which brought Ismaili communities in central Asia back into contact with the outside world, as well as the rise of militant Islam. “Communities like the Ismailis don’t live in a vacuum,” he notes, saying that his job as Imam is to think carefully about how to address the problems in the societies his followers call home. The Ismaili diaspora is almost as widespread as the Jewish one.

I wonder whether he sees the clash between Islam and the west as the most serious global problem. “I’m unwilling to say that in these major issues today faith has been the prime driver. In my view it’s political issues that have been the prime driver,” he says. I ask whether that means they need political solutions. “Bang on,” he replies.

He believes ignorance about Islam in the west is a huge problem. “The Islamic world as an important part of our globe has really been absent from Judeo-Christian education in a strange way,” he says, asking how anyone can be considered properly educated in the west when they know nothing about Islam.

We have to finish, so I ask what he thinks his legacy will be, which provokes laughter and the response that he doesn’t have the faintest idea.

As I switch off the tape recorder and prepare to leave, he visibly relaxes and begins talking about Afghanistan in a far more open way, reminiscing about the Mujahideen leaders he knew during the country’s civil war. We step out into the roof garden, where running water blocks out the roar of traffic. The peace lasts only a moment – the Aga Khan always has more meetings – and I have to go in search of lunch.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2e55dd3a-8b59-11dd-b634-0000779fd18c.html

ALEPPO-SYRIA: The majestic citadel atop Syria’s ancient city of Aleppo, the Masyaf fortress of the sinister order of the Assassins and the castle of Arab conqueror Saladdin have all been given a new lease on life as part of a project by the Aga Khan to promote Islamic sites.

“We don’t do enough to illustrate to the peoples of our world the greatness of Islamic civilisations,” the 71-year-old billionaire spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims said in an interview.

The Aga Khan, who last year celebrated 50 years as head of his community, said at a recent ceremony capping work in Aleppo that his goal is to educate the world on the wealth of Muslim culture.

“Because they don’t know our history, they don’t know our literature, they don’t know our philosophy, they don’t know the physical environment in which our countries have lived, they view the ummah (the Muslim nation) in terminology which is completely wrong.”

The 13th century citadel is in the heart of Aleppo - one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities at the crossroads of ancient trade routes - and is a World Heritage Site along with Saladdin’s castle. Battered by a long history of bombardments, pillage and earthquakes, the citadel’s surrounding walls and some of its 19 towers were strengthened while two mosques, a hammam or bathhouse and a palace were also restored.

For five years dozens of workers restored the minaret of a mosque, baths and the imposing palace within the castle of Saladdin, originally built by the Crusaders on a windswept mountain ridge. The Masyaf fortress is a mediaeval eagles’ nest which served as home to the Assassins, contract killers who were an offshoot of the Ismaili sect of Shia Islam who were persecuted as infidels by the dominant Sunni Muslims.

General conservation work was carried at the rugged site, and part of an outer wall was rebuilt. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture carried out the work in close collaboration with Syria’s antiquities department, and also revamped the landscape around all three sites to make it more tourist-friendly.

“My interest in working in Syria is to take the various lead countries of the ummah and say, let’s start, let’s move together, let’s revive our cultures so that modernity is not only seen in the terminology of the West, but in the intelligent use of our past,” the Aga Khan said.

His visit to Syria was part of a tour of some 35 nations that began in July last year to mark his Golden Jubilee, or 50 years since the Aga Khan became leader of the community in July 1957, succeeding his grandfather.

Fuelled by his enormous wealth the Aga Khan - who ranks 11 on the Forbes list of the world’s wealthiest royals with a fortune estimated at one billion dollars - has since 1967 also led an apolitical, secular foundation. The Aga Khan Development Network is involved in projects from promoting health to education, architecture and the rehabilitation of historic cities.

Helping the poor to improve their lives is also high on the Aga Khan’s agenda. As a youth he dreamt of becoming an architect before graduating instead from Harvard University with a degree in Islamic history. “In the Judaeo-Christian world, charity is a notion which evokes generosity with nothing in return,” the Aga Khan told AFP on the sidelines of his visit to Syria.

“In Islam, the ‘best of charities’, but not the only one, is to help the poor be self-sufficient,” he said. “I was born with Islamic ethics, in a Muslim family. There is nothing wrong with being well off as long as money has a social and ethical value and is not the object of one’s own greed.

“That is why I wanted to set up institutions that can manage everyday problems based on Islamic values. “One of the principles of Islam is that on his deathbed every person must try to leave behind a better world,” he added. Restoring Islamic sites in Syria was also central to his goal of building bridges between religions and cultures.

“Syria wants to be a secular state where all religions co-exist, even if the majority of the Syrian people are Sunni” Muslim, the Aga Khan said. His Ismaili sect split from mainstream Shia Islam in the 11th century and its followers live today in some 25 countries across Africa, West and Central Asia, the Middle East, North America and Western Europe.

Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry
/ET_Cetera/Aga_Khan_pours_his_wealth_into_Islamic_sites_in_Syria
/articleshow/3481367.cms

Peter O’Neil , Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, September 11, 2008

PARIS - Three young Canadian diplomats are on the front line of a fierce political battle to defend the Afghanistan counter-insurgency and reconstruction mission, which has been pummelled over the summer by a string of Taliban military and propaganda coups.

United Nations senior Afghanistan political adviser Chris Alexander and North Atlantic Treaty Organization spokesman James Appathurai - who met as 13-year-old schoolboys in Toronto - and their friend, Arif Lalani, who just left his post as Canada’s ambassador in Kabul, are all high-profile mission defenders in the Canadian and international media.

The trio acknowledge the job is getting more challenging.

Appathurai said this week he presented NATO ambassadors with a new communications plan to counter the surprisingly sophisticated Taliban tactics aimed at grinding down the morale of foreign soldiers, politicians and the public of the more than 40 countries with troops in Afghanistan.

He cited as a showcase example the Taliban ambush last month that left 10 French troops dead and 21 injured.

It was followed by a controversial photo display in the mass-circulation magazine Paris Match, where Taliban were photographed equipped with the uniforms, guns and equipment of the slain soldiers.

Many French were infuriated - with President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Taliban or Paris Match, depending on who was complaining - and it stoked a smouldering national debate over the mission.

Appathurai, spokesman and adviser to NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, acknowledged that soldiers are doing dirty and dangerous work. But he said Afghanistan’s fate could very well be won or lost in western democracies such as Canada, which has seen the deaths of 97 soldiers and one diplomat since 2002.

“I really believe that the battle for public understanding and public support is a strategic centre of gravity for this whole operation, as much as the military battle,” Appathurai told Canwest News Service.

“We will never lose a military exchange with the Taliban - even if they can inflict a lot of damage. But we can be outlasted if public support wanes in national parliaments and in general public opinion.”

The Taliban are exploiting their military successes, as well as civilian deaths caused by NATO and U.S. bombs, on their website, which communicates in five languages and is updated several times daily.

Appathurai is planning to expand NATO’s efforts to get its own “good news” message to Afghans, and to boost the ability of President Hamid Karzai’s government to take over from NATO as the main information source for Afghan journalists.

Alexander and Lalani, who is now on academic leave and is senior visiting fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Affairs, take a similar approach.

Alexander, who helped convince the former Canadian government to send troops to the dangerous Kandahar region when he was ambassador in Kabul from 2003 to 2005, said he takes solace in comparing the current situation to what existed when he arrived - when there was no Afghan National Army and a relatively tiny foreign presence.

“It’s senseless violence, the very definition of terror, and it’s hard to take,” said Alexander, who took a leave from the Canadian foreign service to join the UN in 2005 and is now UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s deputy special representative in Afghanistan.

“But I only continue to believe that a better future is possible for Afghanistan, because I know what was close to the starting point.”

Because of their diverse backgrounds, the three friends collectively could be poster children for Canadian multiculturalism.

Alexander is a fifth-generation Canadian of Scottish, English and Irish descent. Appathurai is a first-generation Canadian whose parents immigrated from Sri Lanka.

Lalani came to Canada with his family as refugees in the early 1970s to escape crazed Ugandan dictator Idi Amin’s crackdown on the Ismaili Muslims there.

“People are seeing three very different faces of Canada,” said Lalani, 40, who until last month headed Canada’s fifth-largest embassy in the world, which oversees an annual aid budget in Afghanistan approaching $300 million.

“It’s kind of funny how it turned out, that we ended up in such prominent positions on the same file, but it’s good because we understand each other” and can reinforce each other’s public messaging, Lalani said.

Alexander and Appathurai, also both 40, first met as they entered their teen years at the University of Toronto Schools, a U of T feeder school for bright youngsters. They became friends with Lalani, a graduate of the University of B.C., when the three entered the Canadian public service in Ottawa during the early 1990s.

Lalani joined the Canadian foreign service in 1991 at the same time Alexander did. The two became fast friends.

Appathurai was a latecomer to the Canadian public service, joining the Department of National Defence as a policy officer in 1994. Four years later, Appathurai, who met Lalani through mutual friends in Ottawa, moved to NATO to become a speech writer.

All three talk about adrenalin-charged “public service moments” where they feel they’re influencing international developments.

Appathurai mentions the time he played a role in NATO’s decision to help airlift African Union troops to Darfur, while Alexander and Lalani regularly stress what they consider under-reported success stories in areas such as education, health and agriculture.

“You can get a true satisfaction from public service that you simply cannot get at an investment bank,” Appathurai said.

“Many of my friends are in investment banks. Even they recognize (there is) a hollow element to their jobs.”

While no one challenges their qualifications for the NATO and UN posts, Lalani said both Appathurai and Alexander might have had a tougher time getting those positions had Canada stayed on the sidelines in Afghanistan.

“It does reflect that they (NATO and the UN) take Canada seriously,” Lalani said.

But NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer bristled at the suggestion Canadians might get an advantage in competing for top diplomatic posts against candidates from countries not pulling their weight.

“James and Chris Alexander are A-1-class diplomats, and they’re both outstanding guys,” he told Canwest.

“I think they were chosen based on their individual qualities and not because their nation participates in such an excellent way as Canada does in Afghanistan.”

Name: Arif Lalani

Born: Oct. 22, 1967, Mbarara, Uganda

Education: BA, University of B.C., (international relations), 1989.

In his own words: “For a kid who, at five years old, had to leave a country because of war and come to Canada, it always kind of gets to me when we’re able at least to look for that one kid whose life we changed because we managed to rehabilitate his school. It’s very personal. And this job allows you to do that.”

Name: James Appathurai

Born: Aug. 7, 1968, Toronto

Education: BA, University of Toronto, (history/political science), 1991. University of Amsterdam, MA (international relations), 1993.

In his own words: “This is always where I wanted to be. My mother was very surprised, and frankly slightly horrified, when I told her when I was 14 I wanted to go to NATO.”

Name: Chris Alexander

Born: Sept. 9, 1968, Toronto

Education: BA, McGill University, Montreal, (history/political science), 1988. MA, Oxford University, England, (philosophy, politics and economics), 1991.

In his own words: “It’s very surprising to see the three of us connected to this story, and I think that says a lot about what Afghanistan has become, in terms of the importance that is attached to it for the UN, for NATO, and for countries like Canada.”

Source: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=95ebba40-46d1-4f44-8241-b384a2b494d1

Dr Ghiath Barakat, Syria’s Minister of Higher Education (right), and Mr Firoz Rasul, President of Aga Khan University (left), sign an agreement to further develop the healthcare sector in the country. The signing of the agreement was witnessed by the Aga Khan (centre) and Prime Minister Muhammad Naji Al-Otri (standing right). Photo/AKDN, GARY OTTE

DAMASCUS, Sunday - The Ministries of Health and Higher Education of the Government of Syria and Aga Khan University have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance capacity in the health sector

The agreement was signed at the Office of the Prime Minister in Damascus and witnessed by Syrian Prime Minister, Mr Muhammad Naji Al-Otri and the Aga Khan, Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Ismaili Muslims.

The Aga Khan is the founder and Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the Chancellor of the Aga Khan University.

He was in Syria on a six-day official visit.

The memorandum, which provides a framework for cooperation in nursing education and hospital quality assurance, was signed by Dr Maher Al-Husami, Minister of Health, Dr Ghiath Barakat, Minister of Higher Education and Mr Firoz Rasul, President of AKU, witnessed by Mr Mohamed Seifo, AKDN Representative in Syria.

The signing of the memorandum marks the expansion of an existing, successful partnership between the Government of Syria and the Aga Khan.

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/world/-/1068/468308/-/rxmnfd/-/

His Highness the Aga Khan completed a six-day official visit to Syria from 24 to 30 August, at the invitation of the Syrian Government.

During his visit to Syria, the Aga Khan met with H.E. President Bashar Al-Assad, and government ministers, and witnessed the signing of a number of agreements between various agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) and the Syrian Government to further strengthen collaboration in the areas of healthcare, microfinance, cultural restoration and tourism.

He also inaugurated the Aleppo Citadel Project, which marks the completion of the cultural revitalisation work on the Citadels of Aleppo, Salah ad-Din and Masyaf, carried out by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in partnership with the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums.

His Highness the Aga Khan inaugurated the medieval citadel overlooking Syria’s ancient city of Aleppo.

The ceremony marked the completion of cultural revitalisation work on the citadels of Aleppo, Salah ad-Din and Masyaf that once formed a system of fortresses in central-western Syria. The restoration work was carried out by AKTC in partnership with the Syrian Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums.

It was attended by His Excellency Mohamed Naji Otri, Prime Minister of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Governor of Aleppo, Dr. Tamer Hejjeh and the Aga Khan’s younger brother, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, as well as numerous government officials, faith leaders and partners in cultural restoration.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Aga Khan emphasised the importance of reviving the history of civilisations of the global Muslim Community, the Ummah, saying:

‘We don’t do enough to illustrate to the peoples of our world the greatness of the Islamic civilisations of cultures of the past.’

He also explained the purpose of the project. ‘The background to this initiative is very simple. It is to illustrate to the peoples of our world, the history of the civilisations of the Ummah,’ he said.

‘Because they don’t know our history, they don’t know our literature, they don’t know our philosophy, they don’t know the physical environment in which our countries have lived, they view the Ummah in terminology which is completely wrong,’ he added.

The Aga Khan also acknowledged that Syria, with its wealth of architectural and cultural treasures takes a unique position in the history of Islam. ‘My interest in working in Syria is to take the various lead countries of the Ummah and say, let’s start, let’s move together, let’s revive our cultures so that modernity is not only seen in the terminology of the west, but in the intelligent use of our past,’ he said.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/167974.html

Composite underwriter Jubilee Holdings Ltd has reported a 35 per cent rise in its half-year pre-tax profit.

The profit hit Sh316 million compared to Sh233 million of first half of last year.

The insurer reported year-on-year premium growth of 57 per cent as the Jubilee Group marked its 70th year of operating in East Africa.

“Over the last 12 months Jubilee has made significant investments in people and systems to improve the underlying efficiency and profitability of its insurance operations and this has allowed the Group to post strong profits during a period of exceptional global market volatility,” group chairman Nizar Juma said.

Mr Juma noted the good performance had been achieved despite the company making ex-gratia payment to victims of the post-election violence.

Growth factors

Premium growth was well balanced in terms of class of business and territory.

General insurance experienced growth of 70 per cent year-on-year and significantly improved its underwriting profitability.

Medical business grew by 47 per cent maintaining Jubilee’s position as the market leader in the region.

Life business grew 44 per cent. Commenting on industry results recently released by the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) Mr Juma said, “We are delighted that during our 70th year, Jubilee is now the largest composite insurer in Kenya.

This is a great addition to the positions that Jubilee already holds - that is, the largest composite insurer in East Africa and the largest medical insurer in Kenya and East Africa”

Jubilee Holdings provides insurance protection to more than 125,000 clients across the East African region and is pushing to improve its reach for its existing and potential customers in the region.

Jubilee Holdings is the only ISO certified insurance-based financial institution listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, Uganda Securities Exchange and Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange.

The company is an affiliate of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, the economic arm of the Aga Khan Development Network.

Source: http://www.nation.co.ke/business/news/-/1006/466582/-/jiyri5z/-/

By William Moss Wilson

Recent initiatives show signs of hope for reviving long-dormant tourist sectors in war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Swiss-based Aga Khan Foundation is contributing $1 million over the next three years to the Bamiyan Ecotourism Project in central Afghanistan. According to Sanjeev Gupta, a regional program coordinator for Aga Khan, the project’s goal is to develop tourist infrastructure, train sector-related employees, and raise awareness about the region.

The relatively safe Bamiyan province is home to the stunning mountain lakes of Band-i-Amir and also to the cliff-carved Buddha statues, unfortunately destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Local infrastructure in Bamiyan has a long way to go. The 150-mile journey from Kabul to Bamiyan takes ten hours on tortuous dirt roads through the Koh-i-Baba mountains. The alternative route is thought to be under Taliban control.

In Iraq, where oil money is filling state coffers and civilian mortality rates are at their lowest since the beginning of the Second Gulf War, optimism seems to be gaining a foothold.

The Iraqi Ministry of Tourism held a tourism fair last month and sponsored a contest for local artists to design posters promoting travel to the country. Mohsen al-Yacoubi, head of the tourism board, delivered the results of the contest to a packed conference room at the al-Mansour Melia hotel, the site of a deadly suicide bombing last year. The ministry announced plans to open tourism offices in select European cities in 2009.

Outside investors are also placing bets on the improving security climate in Iraq. American investor Robert Kelley broke ground last month on a $100-million luxury hotel in downtown Baghdad.

“We think the Iraqi people want to get along with each other,” Kelley told the Associated Press.

For time being, travel is discouraged outside the heavily fortified Green Zone. No official timetable exists for the reopening of the Baghdad Museum. The museum is located outside the Green Zone and officials worry that it could become an easy target for suicide bombers.

Religious tourism is already on the upsurge, thanks in part to an $80-million renovation of a military airfield in Najaf. Iraq’s newest airport opened to commercial traffic on July 20. The airport provides access to several of the Islamic world’s holiest sites in Najaf and nearby Karbala. An investment group led by the Kuwaiti firm Al-Aqeelah plans to pump another $170 million into the project as traffic into the airport increases.

The consensus among travelers, from Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree to Robert Young Pelton’s comebackalive.com, is that travel in Iraq south of Kurdistan remains a foolhardy endeavor. Both the US State Department and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs strongly discourage unnecessary travel to any part of Iraq or Afghanistan. Their web sites warn of the familiar dangers, terrorism, rampant kidnapping, and widespread use of roadside bombs, as well as less obvious threats-the World Health Organization has confirmed Iraq as a site of human deaths from avian influenza.

Other countries, including the UK, Denmark, Japan, and Germany, have amended their travel warnings to note the higher security level in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Source: www.ethicaltraveler.org/news_story.php?id=1105

Damascus, (SANA)- Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Ottri and His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan, Head of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), on Monday discussed fields and prospects of cooperation between the Syrian government and the Network in the economic, social, cultural, development and tourist areas in light of the cooperation agreement signed between the two sides.

Both sides reviewed a set of projects which the AKDN intends to initiate in Syria, particularly rural development, broadening and expanding the program of funding the small-size projects and infrastructure services.

Premier Ottri highlighted the projects which that AKDN is carrying out in Syria, pointing out to its distinguished role in the field of restoration of ancient places and the revival of Arab and Islamic civilizations.

His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan expressed his Network keenness on launching new social and development projects, underscoring the support given to its activities in Syria.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Tourism Dr. Sadullah Agha al-Qala’a and Mohammad Mufdi Seifo, AKDN Resident Representative in Syria.

Deputy Premier for Economic Affairs Abdullah al-Dardari also discussed with His Highness Karim Aga Khan the growing cooperation between his Network and Syria.

Mr. Dardari briefed Prince Karim on the situation of investment in Syria and prospects of big and diversified investment and the possibility of the Network’s funding of several development projects as well as the facilities given by the Syrian government to the investors.

Later, in the presence of Premier Ottri and Prince Karim Aga Khan, the Executive Order document to initiate small-size funding in Syria was signed between the Syrian Central Bank and Aga Khan Agency for Small-Size Loans, along with launching new tourism projects in Damascus.

Also a Memo of Understanding was signed between Aga Khan University and the Syrian Ministries of Health and Higher Education.

After the signing ceremony, Premier Ottri and Prince Karim Aga Khan exchanged friendly speeches, expressing common desire to enhance and develop the existing cooperation between Syria and the AKDN, highlighting the agreements signed today.

They also voiced willingness to establish new development projects in different fields.

Ahmad Fathi ZAHRA

Source: http://www.sana.sy/eng/21/2008/08/25/189985.htm

Ali Muzzaffarag will soon no longer have to drive all the way to and from Porterville twice a day, six days a week, for prayer meetings and religious courses, thanks to action Monday night by the Visalia Planning Commission.

Muzzaffarag is a member of an Islamic religious sect known as the AGA Khan Shiaimami Ismaili Council for the Western United States, with a congregation of about 50 members in Tulare County.

“We are peaceful,” Muzzaffarag said. “It will be wonderful to not have to drive to Porterville for every meeting.”

The AGA Khan Ismailis follow the Islamic teachings of Karim Aga Khan, who started the sect in the 1940s, according to Web sites recommended by Muzzaffarag.

“It is worldwide,” Muzzaffarag said of the Ismailis. “India, Pakistan and many other countries, including the U.S.” AGA Khani Ismailis represent only about 0.1 percent of all Muslims, online sources say.

Planning Commission members voted 4-0, with member Larry Segrue absent, to allow the AGA Khan Ismailis to convert a 1,974-square-foot portion of an existing 6,426-square-foot building into an Ismaili worship and cultural center.

The building, located on the 1500 block of Lovers Lane near Tulare Avenue, is designed for three tenants. It currently houses one primary business — Mineral King Produce. The Ismaili center will be the second tenant, city reports show.

“Were neighbors notified?” asked Planning Commissioner and chairman Vincent Salinas.

“Yes,” answered Paul Bernal, associate planner for Visalia who prepared a staff report on the Ismailis’ proposed center. “There were community meetings and “they [neighbors] attended. There were no issues or concerns.”

The proposed center would be on the same block as a proposed Social Security Administration field office, the builders of which have been forced to seek an alternate site because of strong, organized neighborhood resistance.

However, the Ismaili center is a completely different idea, embraced by neighbors in the area, unlike the stormy, two-year-old Social Security building controversy, said group leader, area resident and Tulare teacher Kimberlie Tyler.

“This is very much within the designed use of that building,” Tyler said. Further, the Ismaili center does not require the construction of an entirely new facility as did the Social Security proposal.

Source: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20080826/NEWS01/808260320/1002