USA VISIT 2008 NEWSPAPERS ONLY

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kmaherali
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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

By CHRISTOPHER QUINN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/liv ... WZV&urcm=y
Published on: 04/17/08

The Aga Khan, head of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims, arrived at Fulton County Airport today to celebrate with his Georgia followers his 50th anniversary as their leader.

A band greeted him with the Ismaili anthem and the U.S. national anthem, and a representative from Gov. Sonny Perdue's office as well as local politicians were on hand to welcome him.


Elissa Eubanks/AJC
(ENLARGE)
The Aga Khan (center) arrives at Fulton County Airport, flanked by Chris Young (right), Chief of Protocol for the State of Georgia, and Mahmoud Eboo, president of Ismaili Council for the United States.


Elissa Eubanks/AJC
(ENLARGE)
Members of the Ismaili community greet the Aga Khan at the Fulton County Airport.

Muslim leader Aga Khan arrives, will dine with Perdue

He will dine with Perdue and other guests at the Governor's Mansion Friday.

The Aga Khan is well-known not only as a leader of the Ismailis, a sect of the Shiite branch of Islam, but also as a businessman and philanthropist.

He will speak in closed session with Ismailis from around the Southeast while here and give a lecture at North Atlanta High School that will attract students and teachers from around the country in the International Baccalaureate program. The Aga Khan is known for his interest in education, sponsoring 325 schools and two universities around the world.
kmaherali
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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Posted on Fri, Apr. 18, 2008
Aga Khan visits Georgia to promote education program
By ERRIN HAINES
ATLANTA

The Aga Khan, billionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader of 20 million Muslims worldwide, ended an eight-day tour of the U.S. on Friday in Atlanta by stressing the importance of understanding, tolerance and global citizenship in education - especially in developing countries.
His trip - which also included stops in Texas, Illinois and California - was part of the Shia Ismaili Muslim commemoration of the Golden Jubilee, which marks the Aga Khan's 50th year as imam of the religious sect.

In his speech at North Atlanta High School, he tried to raise awareness about the Aga Khan Academies, a $1 billion education initiative that will build 18 schools in 14 countries in Africa, Central and South Asia and the Middle East.

The project grew out of a need to develop well-educated, global citizens who would make a difference in their communities, the Aga Khan told the audience.

"Our Academies Program is rooted in the conviction that effective indigenous leadership will be the key to progress in the developing world, and as the pace of change accelerates, it is clear that the human mind and heart will be the central factors in determining social wealth," he said.

"Too many of those who should be the leaders of tomorrow are being left behind today. And even those students who do manage to get a good education often pursue their dreams in far off places and never go home again."

The Aga Khan, who was born and educated in Switzerland, is a Harvard-educated businessman who is a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. In his capacity as imam, he is also chair of the Aga Khan Development Network, a group of private, non-denominational development agencies focused on social, cultural and economic development.

The Aga Khan Academies are an initiative of the network's Aga Khan Education Services, and under the plan, 18 schools are planned in 14 countries at a cost of about $50 million per school - a commitment of nearly $1 billion. The first school opened in Mombasa, Kenya in 2003, and others are planned in India, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Tanzania and Uganda.

The academy curriculum is based on the International Baccalaureate program, which is derived from a program rooted in academics, critical thinking, and a respect and appreciation for cultural diversity.

The program is celebrating its 40th anniversary in Atlanta this week and the Aga Khan addressed the organization as its speaker for the Peterson Lecture, named for the program's first director general.

Previously rooted in Judeo-Christian communities, the Aga Khan Academies represent the first expansion of the IB curriculum into Muslim cultures.

"Squaring the particular with the global will require great care, wisdom, and even some practical field testing, to ensure that it is really possible to develop a curriculum that responds effectively to both the global and the tribal impulses," the Aga Khan said. "The people with whom we will be dealing will present different challenges than before."

To that end, there will be an emphasis on inclusion, ethics, global economics, world culture, and comparative political systems, the Aga Khan told the crowd of educators, administrators, followers and observers.

"The failure of different peoples to be able to live in peace amongst each other has been a major source of conflict," he said. "Pluralism is a value that must be taught ... As we work together to bridge the gulf between East and West, between North and South, between developing and developed economies, between urban and rural settings, we will be redefining what it means to be well educated."

The schools will educate between 750 and 1200 primary and secondary students - with one teacher for every seven pupils - and will be open to exceptional students regardless of their ability to pay. Teacher training centers will also be established ahead of the schools' openings, where local instructors will be taught the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

The 70-year-old leader - also known as Prince Karim Aga Khan IV - succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan, at age 20 on July 11, 1957, becoming the community's 49th imam. Gov. Sonny Perdue also welcomed the Aga Khan to the governor's mansion on Friday, where the two met privately for lunch.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/251/v-pr ... 00757.html
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Eboo Patel
THE FAITH DIVIDE

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfa ... erica.html

Eboo Patel is founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based international nonprofit that promotes interfaith cooperation. His blog, The Faith Divide, explores what drives faiths apart and what brings them together. more »
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The Aga Khan in America
The Pope and the Dalai Lama got all the headlines last week, but they weren’t the only international religious leaders visiting the United States.

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims (the community I belong to; read my piece on the Aga Khan on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his Imamat), was also here.

It was the Aga Khan’s first public visit to America in over two decades. He spent time with his followers in California, Illinois, Texas and Georgia, and met with the governors of each of those states as well.

He also gave a remarkable talk to the leaders of the International Baccalaureate program in Atlanta, where he laid out his vision for education in the developing world. In addition to Aga Khan University in Karachi and the University of Central Asia, and several hundred primary and secondary schools run by the Aga Khan Educational Services , the Aga Khan is launching eighteen elite Aga Khan Academies in countries like Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Mozambique. Each will have 750 – 1000 primary and secondary students selected by merit. The teacher-student ratio will be about seven to one, and the training of teachers will be taken extremely seriously at these institutions (an approach which will undoubtedly have a wider impact in those societies).

The purpose of the Academies is twofold: 1) To educate the next generation of merit-based leaders in the developing world; and 2) To provide a model of educational excellence in areas too often forgotten and dismissed.

I highly recommend the entire text of the talk, but here are some of the things that stood out to me:

1) Pluralism is perhaps the central challenge of our times. Here is how the Aga Khan articulated this: “Balancing the universal and the particular is an age old challenge - intellectually and practically. But it may well become an even more difficult challenge as time moves on and the planet continues to shrink. It is one thing, after all, to talk about cultural understanding when “the Other” is living across the world. It is often a different matter when the “Other” is living across the street.”

2) Pluralism is highly prized in Islam. The Aga Khan quoted multiple times from the Holy Qur’an to make this point, including this verse: “God created you from male and female and made you into communities and tribes, that you may know one another,” (Qur’an 49:13).

3) Educational institutions have a responsibility to address the challenge of pluralism directly: “Experience tells us that people are not born with the innate ability nor the wish to see the Other as an equal individual in society. Pride in one’s separate identity can be so strong that it obscures the instrinsic value of other identities. Pluralism is a value that must be taught.”

Following the legacy of his ancestors, the Imam-Caliphs of Fatimid Egypt who founded the great educational institutions of Al-Azhar and the House of Knowledge, the Aga Khan is revolutionizing education in the developing world.

And along with that, the idea of how values grounded in the Muslim tradition can contribute to modernity.

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From_Alamut
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Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:22 am

Mowlana Hazar Imam pictures with Arnold governal of Calf

Post by From_Alamut »

His Royal Highness the Aga Khan meets California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -Images
On Tuesday, April 15, 2008

==>Click bottom on the website to view the pictures....
http://ismailiworld.blogspot.com/2008/0 ... ornia.html
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