The events of 9/11 and its aftermath have created a pressing need for interfaith dialogue to ensure global peace and common ownership of our mother earth. Unfortunately the Muslim world has no single voice to represent it in the negotiation table, It was because of this reason that Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan, while leading a delegation of the Khilafat Movement made an emotional appeal to the then British Prime Minister, Lloyed George to save the Turkish Khilafat as it represented the unity of the majority Islam ie the Sunni sect. If this symbol of unity was abolished, there would be no one left with whom other faiths would talk to evolve common grounds to solve common problems. Other members of the delegation were astonished that His Highness was supporting an institution which had adversarial relationship with his predecessors.
According to Aga Khan it was no time to renew wounds. It was time for healing and unity to save Muslims. Brothers can have differences at home but if it comes to common enemy or common causes they should be one. How true and prophetic were these words that the Muslim world has yet to realize. Our prejudices and historical hangovers still cloud our memory and block our mind to recall the golden words of His Highness which he expressed as President of the League of Nations while welcoming Egypt to its membership. A leading Indian Muslim intellectual, Mushir Hussain Kidwai, lauded the speech of His Highness saying that only the Aga Khan could have uttered those words in the defense of Islam because the blood of the Prophet’s family ran through his veins. After the speech Muslim delegates raised their heads high. The speech followed a recitation from the Holy Quran, the first in the history of international organizations.
The present Aga Khan being heir to that glorious tradition is silently carrying forward that work almost single handedly.Even his followers are incapable of appreciating this work to extend him helping hand in a meaningful way. They consider it as an activity and are unable to see the link between the process and its outcome in the historical or present context. Perhaps they do not have the mindset and exposure to those historical facts that make Ismailis the most unique sect for having given unprecedented sacrifices to preserve those values of our great religion that we today take for granted.
Ismailimail 
nice written
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