Conference on Central Asia and Europe, Berlin

Speech by President of the Republic Armando Guebuza, Ponta Vermelha Palace, Official Banquet (Maputo, Mozambique)

20 November 2007

Your Highness the Aga Khan
Dear Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen

We give Your Highness and the illustrious delegation accompanying you, our warmest welcome do this Pearl of the Indic. It is our pleasure, above all, to be able to directly reiterate our felicitations on the occasion of the celebration of Your Highness Golden Jubilee as the 49th hereditary Imam of the Ismaili Muslim Community.

It is a great satisfaction to be united not only to celebrate the work that has been constructed over half a century of spiritual leadership of this religious community, but also for the projects you are developing in many parts of the world. We extend our wishes for great successes in the pursuance of your role and, in making available more cooperation and support to the various populations of the world, including the Mozambican people.

In your role as Founder and Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network, you have, with great perseverance and enthusiasm, contributed significantly towards the integrity of mankind and towards the integrated development of the countries in the world.

Amongst us, we have encouraging signs which intensify our certainty that the bases are launched, for a wider, diversified and long-lasting cooperation with the Aga Khan Development Network, whether considering the integrity of mankind or the integrated development of our Mozambique. Let us consider as an example:
The rural and integrated development project of the coast in the Province of Cabo Delgado;
The investments in the Polana Hotel, a touristic and architectural reference, and of great importance in Mozambique;
The project of the Aga Khan Excellency Academy in Matola.

Part of these activities, which also include the areas of health, the development of national entrepreneurship and microfinances, currently benefit approximately 100 000 mozambicans.

Our people have access to these projects and its benefits, regardless of gender, religion and social status and, thus, the Aga Khan Development Network participates, in a sustained manner, in the battle against poverty in Mozambique, in the rural areas and in the city, from Rovuma to Maputo and from the Indic to Zumbo.

The dialogue we maintained this afternoon resulted in the identification of other areas which can be included in the co operation we are developing. Within this context, we underline our interest and commitment in seeing these areas identified and transformed into projects with results that will have a direct impact on the lives of our People.

We are sure that the implementation of the projects currently underway and with the materialisation of those which we identified today constitutes milestones of friendship and compassion amongst this Network and the Mozambicans. They are also a priceless contribution in the reduction of poverty and for the attainment of the Millennium Development Objectives.

It is convenient to recognize and highlight, that this compassion and friendship that the Aga Khan Development Network finds in Mozambique and within the heart of our People is born from a relationship many centuries old, during which the oriental traces and those of Islam were crystallised in our Beloved Motherland. With this exchange, our cultures have mutually grown and, from this relationship both have benefited as has benefited the rest of Mankind.

Your Highness,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mozambique is characterised by Peace, stability and social and economic development. Last October the 4th, we celebrated fifteen years of peace and reconciliation in the breast of the Mozambican Family. One of the most marking moments of the celebration was the religious ceremony during which several religions jointly prayed for a Mozambique that continues do develop the principle that the only alternative to peace is Peace itself.

The stability in this Pearl of the Indic is further promoted by the environment of a multi party democracy, of dialogue, and of the inclusion which we cultivate in our everyday lives. It is equally sustained by the internal partnerships which we establish with several national players who, like us, have worked to transform Peace and stability into another important resource that has been put to work towards our social and economic development.

During these few days of your visit to our beloved Motherland, Your Highness will note that the new social and economical infrastructures are rising in our horizon as monuments that mark the victories we are attaining in our fight against poverty. More schools, more health posts and more fountains of drinkable water that are being introduced, along the height and width of our Mozambique, are having a considerable impact on the lives of our people. Likewise, more locations and Mozambican citizens are benefiting from:
More reconstructed roads and new bridges;
Mobile and fixed telephone network, and energy 24 hours a day;
They benefit, yet, from more work posts that are being created by the public and private investment both national and foreign. Recently, we inaugurated the project of Moma heavy sands which has had a visible impact, inclusively near the local communities.

Your Highness,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The presence of Your Highness the Aga Khan amongst us, is a particularly distinct moment to exchange our views regarding the internal situation of Mozambique, and of the impact of the Aga Khan Development Neworks projects. It is, simultaneously, an opportunity to reiterate our joint commitment to proceed with our share in the construction of a world that is characterized by the culture of peace, solidarity, and prosperity.

Hence, we invite all present to join us in a toast:
For His Highness health and happiness;
To His Highness Golden Jubilee;
For the successes in the cooperation between Mozambique and the Aga Khan Development Network.

Thank you all for your attention.

Opening Remarks by Salim Bhatia at the Stone Laying Ceremony of The Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad

22 September 2006

It is a great privilege and pleasure to welcome such a distinguished group of individuals to this Foundation Stone-Laying Ceremony in Hyderabad. Thank you for being with us today. Your presence here signifies the importance you place on education and the role you see the Aga Khan Academies playing in education in Andhra Pradesh and in India. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has already expressed its enthusiasm for this project by the gift of this exceptional site. Your Excellency we greatly appreciate your and the government of Andhra Pradeshs generous support.

Thank you.


I have the honour of having been entrusted with the extraordinary vision of His Highness for the Academies as Director of the Aga Khan Academies. Under the guidance of His Highness and with the generous support of many expert advisors, both voluntary and remunerated, across the globe we are doing the careful, creative work of building the Aga Khan Academies network, of which the Hyderabad Academy is an integral part. At this time, we envisage a network of 18 campuses across South and Central Asia, East Africa, and the Middle East, to be established over the course of the next decade or so. This is not just a system of quality schools operated under the one banner but rather its a global learning community in which students and teachers at each Academy contribute and participate.



The decision His Highness took to establish the network of Aga Khan Academies is consistent with the Aga Khan Development Networks contemporary mandate to help relieve society of ignorance, disease and deprivation without regard to the faiths or national origins of the people whom they serve. And so, the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad too will serve Indian students from all backgrounds.

Over the past century, the Ismaili Imamat has built over 300 schools in the countries where we plan to build Academies. The Aga Khan Education Service currently operates 42 educational institutions in India, educating over 12,000 students and employing over 450 teachers. In addition, in conjunction with the Aga Khan Foundation, it impacts, through school improvement programs, an additional 365 institutions, 58,000 students and over 1300 teachers. The AKDN institutions in India play a critically important role of providing a solid education to many who would otherwise not have access to any education, particularly girls and boys in rural parts of the country.


As envisioned by His Highness, the Academies represent both a continuation of that proud tradition and a new direction. In establishing the network of Aga Khan Academies, the Aga Khan Development Network is not moving away from our commitment to those students, families, and teachers who are part of the AKES. In fact, we intend the Academies to become a primary resource for teacher development. The Academys in-house Professional Development Centre with its strong connection to the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development will also serve AKES teachers and other teachers from government and private schools regionally and nationally. Through this Professional Development Center at the Hyderabad campus, the Aga Khan Academies intend to make a sustained meaningful contribution to the quality of education in India.


In establishing the Academies, we are adding a new dimension to our diverse network of educational institutions. The AKDNs commitment--our tradition -- is to identify particular niches of human need, areas where there is significant human potential that can be developed if given the opportunity. We take care in assessing that need, think creatively and consult broadly in developing sustainable solutions, often quite original, in the form of institutions that will endure and evolve. The niches of human need we identify require bold and creative interventions, and, while we are humble about what we as committed individuals can accomplish in single lifetimes, we take a very long view and have confidence that working together we can effect lasting change.


Hazrat Ali, the first hereditary Imam of the Shia Muslims, emphasized in his teachings that No honor is like knowledge... No belief is like modesty and patience, no attainment is like humility, no power is like forbearance, and no support is more reliable than consultation. The work of creating the Aga Khan Academies honors knowledge and the transformative power knowledge has in peoples lives and in the future of society. We also take a fundamentally consultative approach to the work keeping our minds open to what others can teach us and connecting it to what we know and the particular challenges that we face. We approach all of what we do with modesty and patience, and yet, as my colleagues would tell you, we also bring a sense of urgency to our work every day matters.

And this days Foundation Stone-Laying Ceremony matters. It marks the beginning of the physical establishment of the Aga Khan Academy in Hyderabad, an institution for which we have developed a clear vision and plans, and yet which will take some time to create and even longer to have the impact on society that we expect it to have.


The underlying idea of the Aga Khan Academys network is to concentrate substantial resources on those exceptional individuals students and teachers who have the potential to transform society. This commitment stems from the fact that, provided with a world-class education, exceptional students from any background can fully achieve their significant potential and in so doing improve their lives, the lives of their families, their communities, their country, and the world. Providing a rich learning environment in which those rare intellectual and personal gifts can be fully developed and at the same time instilling a sense of social responsibility in these bright young minds, this is the philosophy behind the Aga Khan Academies.

We humbly hope that the global network of Aga Khan Academies will become as successful and enduring as the AKDN itself. To be sure, we are at this time a nascent program. Three years have not yet passed since we opened the very first Academy in Mombasa, Kenya. The campus there is still taking shape as we add the residential facilities. We see the Mombasa Academy as our test-bed, our intellectual trampoline on which we can develop and refine the program for the network of Academies. And yet it is not an experimental school: I am proud of our most recent International examination results, placing the school in the top tier of performance world-wide. In addition, students and faculty in Mombasa are setting new national records in swimming, adding local culture to a world class education through visiting artists programmes gaining a true appreciation of their peoples needs by working regularly in a local village with their less privileged brethren. In sum, the Academy is becoming the vibrant, healthy and rewarding learning environment of the sort we aim to create right here in Hyderabad.

In closing, we would all like to thank your Highness for your inspiring leadership, for your vision identifying important human needs, your commitment to tackling them with creative, bold initiatives and staying with them until the solutions are institutionalized.


Thank you.

Address by His Highness the Aga Khan at the Commencement Ceremony of the American University (Cairo, Egypt)

15 June 2006

President Arnold,
Members of the Board of Trustees,
Members of the Faculty and Administration,
Parents and Families,
Distinguished guests,
And, most importantly, the Graduating Class
Congratulations

I deeply appreciate your warm welcome and I am most grateful for the wonderful honor you are conferring upon me through this honorary degree. I have long been a great admirer of the American University in Cairo - and I am proud that I can now count myself among your alumni.

This is a very special University. For 87 years, it has been a place for creative and constructive interaction between East and West. Its success has inspired those who see the future as one of intercultural cooperation and collaboration, rather than intercultural clash.

The new campus you are building will be a splendid physical manifestation of that vision. But it is even more important that this vision be manifested in the years ahead in your own, individual lives.

Most of you share with me a common cultural background. I was born into a Muslim family, educated as a Muslim and spent many years studying Muslim history. Then, almost fifty years ago, I became Imam of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, responsible both for interpreting the faith to the community, and for helping improve the quality and security of the communitys daily life. From that day to this, my dominant preoccupation has been with the developing world, and particularly the countries of South and Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East, where Ismailis are concentrated among other Muslim populations.

Over these five decades, I have watched that world oscillate constantly, between hope and disappointment.


Too often, disappointment has been the dominant story. And too often the dominant response to disappointment has been to embrace false hopes - from dogmatic socialism to romantic nationalism, from irrational tribalism to runaway individualism.


Another response has been to revisit past glories - contrasting them with contemporary setbacks. Many Muslims in particular, recall a time when Islamic civilizations were on the cutting edge of world progress. They dream of renewing that heritage. But they are not sure how to do so.


For some, renewal means recovering old forms of the faith - while for others it means rejecting faith itself. For some, recovering glory means opposition to the West, its cultures and its economic systems - while for others it means partnering with non-Islamic societies.


As university graduates, you will be fashioning your own visions for the future and your own ways of fulfilling them. But as you do, I hope you will honor the values of this University. For the one ingredient which holds particular promise in the search for fulfillment, is the search for knowledge.


From the very beginnings of Islam, the search for knowledge has been central to our cultures. I think of the words of Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first hereditary Imam of the Shia Muslims, and the last of the four rightly-guided Caliphs after the passing away of the Prophet (may peace be upon Him). In his teachings, Hazrat Ali emphasized that No honour is like knowledge. And then he added that No belief is like modesty and patience, no attainment is like humility, no power is like forbearance, and no support is more reliable than consultation.


Notice that the virtues endorsed by Hazrat Ali are qualities which subordinate the self and emphasize others - modesty, patience, humility, forbearance and consultation. What he thus is telling us, is that we find knowledge best by admitting first what it is we do not know, and by opening our minds to what others can teach us.

At various times in world history, the locus of knowledge has moved from one centre of learning to another. Europe once came to the Islamic world for intellectual enrichment - and even rediscovered its own classical roots by searching in Arabic texts.


Astronomy, the so-called Science of the Universe was a field of particular distinction in Islamic civilization - in sharp contrast to the weakness of Islamic countries in the field of Space research today. In this field, as in others, intellectual leadership is never a static condition, but something which is always shifting and always dynamic.


Indeed, Islamic culture in past centuries was distinctly dynamic - constantly reaching out - both to India and the East and to Europe and the West - for enrichment. Throughout history, confident cultures from every part of the world have been eager to seek new learning, not to dilute inherited traditions but to amplify and extend them. The great civilizations of Islam were prime examples.


More than a millennium ago, as early as the 8th century, the original Abbasids, ruling as Caliphs in Baghdad, set up academies and libraries where new knowledge was honored - independent of its source. The Fatimids continued this tradition - reaching out from their base in Cairo - established in the 10th century - to welcome learned figures from distant lands. A bit later, Ghazni, in Afghanistan, became another center of learning - again by reaching out.


By the time of the Safavid era - halfway through the second millennium - cultural leaders of all types - mathematicians, scientists, painters, musicians, and writers - were moving constantly from country to country and court to court - from the Safavid centers in Iran to the Mughal courts of India, and the Uzbek court at Bukhara in what is now Uzbekistan.

The Ottoman Caliphs in Turkey continued in this proactive tradition in the 19th century, borrowing now from primarily western models. The Ottomans paved the way for the immense modernizations associated with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the twentieth century. Ataturks reforms brought opposition from ulama and others. Nonetheless, scholars have concluded that a great part of the population did not see Ataturk and his reforms as hostile to Islam. Many saw them as extending a well-established pattern.

I believe that same pattern must be our model today. In keeping with our past traditions, and in response to our present needs, we must to go out and find the best of the worlds knowledge - wherever it exists.

But accessing knowledge, is only the first step. The second step - the application of knowledge, is also demanding. Knowledge, after all, can be used well or poorly - for good or evil purposes.

Once we have acquired knowledge, it is important that the ethical guidelines of faith be invoked, helping us apply what we have learned to the highest possible ends. And it is also important that those ends be related to the practical needs of our peoples.

Throughout history, the application of knowledge has often been determined by a few powerful rulersor by highly dominant governments. But I believe the hour is passing for these outmoded, top-heavy ways of deciding how knowledge should be utilized.

Governments role will not disappear, of course. But a variety of new factors are at play--the vast complexity of economic life, the growing pluralism of society, the splintering and decentralization of information media, and the fragmentation of cultural identity. And all of these factors argue for a more diverse approach.

The great effort of humankind to organize itself for the common good must change with changing environments. For thousands of years our environment was largely agricultural, where value attached primarily to land. Three centuries ago, agriculture began to yield to industry, as machines took center stage, along with standardized processes and the efficiencies of scale.

But in the last few decades, Agricultural Society and Industrial Society have gradually been displaced by what has been called the Knowledge Society, propelled by new digital technology and the expansion of cyberspace.

As a result, enormous social influence has been transferred from the owners and workers of farms and factories, to those whom we now call Knowledge Workers, people who create and exchange information. For them, power attaches more to ideas and values than to money or physical force. Among them, power itself is widely dispersed.

In such a time, we need to depend less on government and more on what I call the institutions of civil society. These civil institutions are normally private and voluntary - but they are committed to the public good. They include entities dedicated to education and research, labour and commerce, health and the environment, culture and religion.

Civil institutions can thrive even when governments falter. But they cannot thrive unless governments and citizens also place a high value on diversity, and create a supportive environment for non-governmental initiatives. The graduates of the American University in Cairo can play a critical role in that process.

To do this however, will mean confronting the knowledge deficit which now plagues too many Islamic societies. Happily, technology has given us wonderful new ways of sharing knowledge. Rather than sending scholars over thousands of miles and scores of years, from library to library and academy to academy, today we can simply click in a matter of seconds onto a wide variety of appropriate websites. But, first, we must acknowledge what it is that we do not yet know - committing ourselves to continued learning and accepting the fact that useful knowledge will often be found by reaching beyond the traditional barriers of both geography and culture.

The most valuable part of your University education may not lie merely in the content of what you have learned here, but in your improved ability to go on learning for the rest of your lives.

One certain contributor to the knowledge deficit in large parts of the Islamic world has been the disconnect between weak universities, and the requirements of modern economies. We must understand the intimate connection between the economy of any country and the research agenda of its universities - the fact that research requires the intimate involvement of economic institutions, and that economic development requires the support and the stimulus of cutting edge research.

All of this will help explain why our Aga Khan Development Network has placed such a high priority on the development of Aga Khan supported Universities and Academies in parts of the developing world. And it will also explain my admiration for the work of this University. Along with similar, sister institutions, AUC has effectively combined values and requirements of the Islamic world with educational resources from the Western world. In doing so, it marks a promising pathway to the future.

As graduates of this university, you have already begun your journey down that path - and you are ideally placed to lead others along it. This calling is your special responsibility. But you can take up this obligation knowing that you are well equipped for the road ahead.

In the long sweep of human history, Egypt has been among the first and most distinguished centers of world learning. Building on those traditions, this country and this region can again play a central role in the Knowledge Society of the future - and each of you can be a vital part of that exciting process.

May Allah accompany you.

Thank You.