Abstract
In the modern period, education has formed a core part of the social development programmes of the Ismaili Imamat. The first schools built by Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah in India and East Africa in the early part of the 20th century marked the beginnings of an expanding commitment to education within the Ismaili Muslim community and beyond. Over the past five decades, and in light of the conditions in de-colonised states, His Highness the Aga Khan IV has transformed and broadened these educational initiatives into an international humanitarian endeavour that reaches out to hundreds of communities across the world. He has responded to the need for universal and continuing education in developing regions of the world by investing in a wide array of educational institutions, programmes and projects, from universities and training colleges to academies, primary schools and preschool centres.
One area which has been of special concern to His Highness the Aga Khan is education related to Islam. In recent years, His Highness has expressed the need for educational programmes on Islam and Muslim societies that can help to bridge the rift between the West and the Muslim world:
“What we are now witnessing is a clash of ignorance, an ignorance that is mutual, longstanding, and to which the West and the Islamic world have been blind for decades at their great peril. For a number of years I have voiced my concern that the faith of a billion people is not part of the general education process in the West – ignored by school and college curricula in history, the sciences, philosophy and geography. An important goal of responsible education should be to ring fence the theologising of the image of the Muslim world by treating Muslims as it treats Christians and Jews, by going beyond a focus on theology to considering civil society, politics, and economics of particular countries and peoples at various points in their history. This will reveal the fundamental diversity and pluralism of Muslim peoples, cultures, histories, philosophies and legal systems … Repositioning theology with respect to the normal forces of human society will help develop the understanding that Muslims too live in the real world and have to contend with the same issues of life – of poverty, hunger, tragedy and civil conflict – as all others in the developing world.” [1]
Complete at Institute of Ismaili Studies
Ismailimail 