PRINCE Aga Khan, leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, has been in Portugal to take part in a symposium on ëCosmopolitan Society, Human Safety and Rights in Plural and Peaceful Societiesí which was held at Evora University.
President Jorge Sampaio accompanied the prince during this visit in which the Aga Khan was awarded a Honorary Doctorate by the University of …vora for ëMaterial and Spiritual Service to Humanityí. On receiving the award the Prince said: ěThis occasion is of special happiness since it continues the long-standing relationship that the Ismaili Imamat and community enjoy with the republic and people of Portugal. Our ties are the stronger for being rooted in a shared sense of responsibility to strive together for the greater good of all.
ěThe University of Evora is an ancient bastion of this sense of equitable and moral order which supports its tradition of academic excellence, nurturing merit wherever it exists. These are the values which the Iberian Peninsula radiated as an inspiring beacon of light, representing the truly glorious epochs in human history when the Muslim and Judeo-Christian worlds developed constructive linkages, enriching their civilisations and empowering their institutions of higher learning with new sources of knowledge.î
The prince, a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, is the spiritual leader to an estimated 20 million Shiite Ismaili Muslims in 25 countries. In a clear reference to the recent tensions between the west and the Muslim countries, the Aga Khan said: ěThe headlines chart the widening gulf between Islamic and western societies. Here, the culprit has not been military action or diplomatic failure, but the power of media images, deeply offensive caricatures, which have profoundly offended one billion four hundred million Muslims around the world, including myself. The question I ask, as I read all these headlines, is this: Why are political and civil leaders, in rich and poor nations alike, unable to develop the vision and harness the will to confront such challenges more effectively? What makes this sense of impasse especially disturbing is that it so often represents a failure of democracy.
I must believe that it is ignorance which explains the publishing of those caricatures which have brought such pain to Islamic peoples. I note that the Danish journal, where the controversy originated, acknowledged, in a recent letter of apology, that it had never realised the sensitivities involved. In this light, perhaps, the controversy can be described less as a clash of civilisations and more as a clash of ignorance. The alternative explanation would be that the offence was intended, in which case we would be confronted with evil of a different sort.
But, even to attribute the problem to ignorance, is in no way to minimise its importance. In a pluralistic world, the consequences of ignorance can be profoundly damaging. Perhaps, too, it is ignorance which has allowed so many in this discussion to confuse liberty with licence, implying that the sheer absence of restraint on human impulse can constitute a sufficient moral framework. ěThis is not to say that governments should censor offensive speech. Nor does the answer lie in violent words or violent actions. But I am suggesting that freedom of expression is an incomplete value unless it is used honourably, and that the obligations of citizenship in any society should include a commitment to informed and responsible expression. If we can commit ourselves, on all sides, to that objective, then the current crisis could become an educational opportunity, an occasion for enhanced awareness and broadened perspectives. Ignorance, arrogance, insensitivity - these attitudes rank high among the great public enemies of our time. And the educational enterprise, at its best, can be an effective antidote to all of them.î
The Prince is also the head of the Aga Khan Development Network which has recently formalised co-operative agreements with both the Portuguese Government and the Patriarchate of Lisbon. The Protocol of Co-operation establishes the framework under which the Portuguese government will work with the agencies and institutions of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) one of the largest private development networks in the world, to implement initiatives for social, cultural and economic development. The Prime Minister underlined the significance of the Protocol to Portugal and Portuguese-speaking countries. ěWe now have a partner in the areas of international co-operation, social development and in promoting dialogue between different civilisations and religions,î he said. The Protocol expresses the conviction that efforts to alleviate poverty require a range of public-private partnerships with civil society, including faith-based organisations. To that end, it builds upon AKDNís already existing relationships with a number of partners in the development field in Portugal, including the Portuguese Institute of Development Support, the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity, the Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Catholic Church, through the Patriarchate of Lisbon, the Municipalities of Lisbon and Sintra, and various private sector organisations in Portugal. Prince Aga Khan expressed his appreciation for the collaboration of the Government of Portugal in extending agreement to the Protocol, the first to be signed by the Ismaili Imamat with a Western Government.