Visiting Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of Shia Ismaili Muslims, and Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury jointly laid the foundation for the Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre in Dhaka yesterday, which will be used as a place for congregational gathering of the Ismailis and their administrative functions.
“We see this new addition to the Dhaka cityscape as a symbol of our continuing historic commitment to this country and further reinforcement of the warm relations which the Ismaili people have enjoyed here,” Prince Karim said at the foundation stone laying ceremony.
The centre, which will be built in Bashundhara Residential Area, will also bring the community members together at seminars, lectures, cultural and educational events and other programmes.
Saying that the Jamatkhana will be a place of peace and tranquillity, filled with the spirit of humility and prayer, the Aga Khan said: “It will not be a place for conceit or self-satisfaction, but a place for search and enlightenment.”
Recalling his grandfather Sir Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan’s call to Ismailis to settle in the then East Pakistan after the partition of subcontinent, he said the commitment to Bangladesh has continued in more recent years, often channelled through the activities of the Aga Khan Development Network.
He said the Jamatkhana and the Aga Khan Academy in Dhaka will play complementary roles as they will work to dispel ignorance, cultivate a cosmopolitan outlook and nourish the cause of peace and harmony among peoples and cultures within this country and around the world.
“Bangladesh has made a courageous commitment through the years to values which have grown out of Islamic traditions, but which are of universal applicability: a dedication to human dignity; to taking and giving the hand of friendship; to humility in the all-enveloping divine presence which impels one to celebrate God-given differences, rather than denigrating them, and to the persistence of hope, and to the resilience which hope bestows,” he said.
Bss adds: Education Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman yesterday called on visiting Prince Karim Aga Khan at his hotel suite.
During the meeting, he proposed a forum for holding annual exchange of views session, which would play a pioneering role in the country’s education sector. The prince supported the proposal, an official handout said.
Aga Khan suggested further promotion of the university research activities and improvement of the child-level madrasa education. He also recommended inclusion of moral education, culture and subjects related to freedom from fundamentalism in the curriculum.
Prince Aga Khan assured of providing all possible assistance in the education sector of Bangladesh, the handout said.
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