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

9 April 2020

Dear Staff and Volunteers,

A Note of Appreciation and Well Wishes

When we opened Don’t Ask Me Where I Am From one month ago, I did not realize how quickly
the measures for containing COVID-19 would come into place and how soon, thereafter, the
Museum would have to close to the public. I feel great sadness that we have had to close after
five and half years of continuous and I believe successful operations. My hope is that this crisis
will pass swiftly.

Our priority at this moment is to contain the virus, and keeping the Museum closed is part of this

Mr. Chairman, Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Let me first say how grateful I am for your invitation to speak to this distinguished audience in Karachi today and for your kind words about my family and about myself.

Perhaps I should begin by defining what I mean by the phrase “Nation States”. First it is the land area or areas over which a single government exercises authority in terms of internal administration and external defense and whose frontiers are recognized, legally or de facto, by other nation states.

At the Class of 1996 baccalaureate service, Brown President Vartan Gregorian introduced His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, leader of the Ismaili Muslims, who delivered the baccalaureate address. The University's 232nd baccalaureate service was held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 26, in the Meeting House of the First Baptist in America, near the Brown University campus in Providence, R.I. The text of the President Gregorian's introduction follows.

In the name of Brown University and the 231 previous baccalaureate speakers, I greet you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, members of the Class of 1996:

Chairman of the Board of the Trustees, members of the Board of Trustees, members of the Firashta Family and the Soneri Bank and welcome guests.

This is a singularly important occasion in the history of the Aga Khan University and I would like to share with you right at the beginning of these few comments, a very deep sense of happiness and elation at the way in which the School of Nursing at the Aga Khan University has progressed.

Mr. Chairman, Board of The Trustees, Trustees, members of the Hadi Family, and honoured guests.

This is an occasion of real happiness for Me, because over the years, I have observed in the developing world, some really severe problems in the quality of diagnosis and the risk to which sick people are exposed through poor diagnosis or worse.

Madam Chairman,
As this is the first time that I am addressing the General Assembly this year, I should like, first of all, to offer you my sincere congratulations on your election and to congratulate the other officers of the Third Committee, the distinguished Vice-Chairman and Rapporteur.
Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I also wish to say how happy I am to be here in the Third Committee once more.

am grateful to Mr. McPherson for his kind and generous introduction, and I welcome this opportunity to share with a concerned and well-informed audience some thoughts on the Third World today. To do so in the presence of my old friend Brad Morse gives me particular pleasure. To me Mr. Morse is a symbol of a new pragmatism in development thinking that I sense in both the industrialized states and among the heterogeneous group of countries that are confusingly lumped together as the Third World. That term reminds me of a speaker who was explaining the role of UNDP.

Discours prononcé par Son Altesse l’Aga Khan
pour l’installation de M. Dominique Perrault à l’Académie des beaux-arts
le mercredi 22 juin 2016

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Monsieur Dominique Perrault

Votre premier jour sous la Coupole inspire de grandes joies :

Your Royal Highness,
Honourable Minister,
Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Guests,

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim

Your Excellencies, Your Worship, Distinguished Scholars and Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bismillah-ir Rahman ir Rahim
His Excellency Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of the Portuguese Republic,
His Highness the Aga Khan,
Minister of Health, Madame Marta Temido,
President of the Central Hospitals of Lisbon, Madame Rosa Valente Matos,
Diplomatic Representative of the Ismaili Imamat to the Portuguese Republic, Comendador, Nazim Ahmad,
Member of the Portuguese Delegation to the Seat Agreement’s Joint Committee, Mr. João Pedro Antunes,
Leaders of the Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili Imamat,
Distinguished guests,

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson,
The Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean,
The Right Honorable Joe Clark,
The Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario,
Excellencies,
Friends of the Global Centre for Pluralism,

It is a great pleasure to welcome you this evening to the second Global Pluralism Award ceremony.

Thank you, Meredith, for the warm introduction. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we are delighted that you have joined the Centre as Secretary General.

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim

Honourable Adviser for Foreign Affairs
Honourable Adviser for Religious Affairs
Excellencies
Your Excellencies
Distinguished Guests

As-Salaam-o-Alaikum

It is a special pleasure to welcome this distinguished and diverse audience to this Foundation Ceremony, as we formally mark the beginning of a new Jamatkhana in Dhaka.

Bismillah-ir-Rahaman-ir-Rahim

As-Salam-Alai-Kum, Peace be upon you

Your Excellency Mintimer Shaimiev,
Your Excellency Eleonora Mitrofanova,
Respected Members of the Government,
Distinguished Guests

What an enormous pleasure it is to welcome all of you to this ceremony.

We gather today with a group of extraordinary people, in an extraordinary place, and for an extraordinary purpose.

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture is organised around a series of three-year cycles - each one culminating in the recognition of our Award recipients.

Mowlana Hazar Imam’s speech at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the main building of Abdul Waheed Moledina Schools', Poona (India).

Mr. Chairman, Members of the Managing Board Ladies and Gentlemen:

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim
Ms. Mohammed,
Your Excellency, the President of the Assembly,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you, on behalf of the Board of the Global Centre for Pluralism, to the 2019 Pluralism Lecture here at the Ismaili Centre in Lisbon.

I must thank His Excellency the Iranian Minister, Lord Lamington and the members of the Society for having done me the honour of inviting me tonight to bring before you the importance to the whole world of those spiritual forces that the ancient land of Iran has cherished in her modern history. Before I go further I want to define clearly what I mean by "spiritual forces" – I do not use this term in any question-begging sense.

Your Worship the Mayor,
Honourable Guests,

I would like to begin my comments this afternoon by saying how touched I am by the recognition that you have given to me this afternoon.

In my work I look at peoples from all environments — cities, rural urban areas, deserts, industrialised areas — and I look at how people live, and I ask myself, “How can we improve the living conditions of people in all these environments?”

Your Highness, the Prince Aga Khan,
Prince Amyn Aga Khan,
President of the Porto Municipal Assembly,
Councillors, other elected representatives,
Commander Nazim Ahmad, Diplomatic Representative of the Ismaili Imamat in Portugal,
All other members of the delegation of His Highness the Aga Khan,
Members of the Parliament of the Consular Corps, civil, military, and the religious authorities,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Your Highness, your presence today in the Porto city is, for us, a moment of joy, not only for us who are here gathered together, but for the city.

Your Highness the Aga Khan, thank you very much
Princess Zahra Aga Khan
My dear friend, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Paulo Portas
Chairman Haile Debas
President Firoz Rasul, thank you for your introduction
My dear friend, Ambassador Nazim Ahmad, always a great friend for a long time and a great man
Honourable Trustees of the Aga Khan University

Dear Friends

Thank you so much for inviting me tonight. I have, let me tell you, a huge admiration, a huge admiration for your community, Your Highness, and for your leadership.