By: NEAL PEIRCE – Published: October 30, 2011
Who is the Aga Khan? And why is he being honored?
These are the questions that 6,000 developers from around the United States (plus many from around the world) must have been asking last week as they assembled in Los Angeles for the Urban Land Institute’s 75th anniversary celebration.
The organization’s highest honor, they heard, was not, as in previous years, going to a familiar U.S. property developer, planner or far-sighted political leader (last year, Chicago’s retiring Mayor Richard M. Daley).
Rather, the prestigious J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development was being awarded to Shah Karim al-Husseini — a man better known as the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims, a sect of 12 million to 15 million believers worldwide who revere him as a direct descendant of and legitimate heir to the prophet Muhammad.
And why this selection? The ULI award cited the Aga Khan’s “strong leadership, over more than 40 years, in a stunning variety of development and philanthropic endeavors largely benefitting poor and marginalized communities in Asia and Africa struggling to improve their living conditions.”
via Aga Khan builds better lives for poor | Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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