On Thursday, November 14, His Highness the Aga Khan addressed an overflow audience at Memorial Church on the challenges of pluralism today in the world today. The 40 minute lecture entitled, “The Cosmopolitan Ethic in a Fragmented World,” encouraged his listeners to strive to be more “pluralist” and “cosmopolitan,”–in other words, people should actively seek out difference and diversity and learn from it. “Diversity is not a burden to be endured, but an opportunity.” Education is an “indispensable weapon” in defeating the “profound clash of ignorances” which underlie the deeper notion of a “clash of civilizations.”
In describing the global changes he has witnessed in the past six decades since he assumed the Imamat, the Aga Khan noted that despite increased connectivity and communication, more conflict has been observed: “Whether we are looking at a more fragile European Union, a more polarised United States, a more fervid Sunni-Shia conflict, intensified tribal rivalries in much of Africa and Asia, or other splintering threats in every corner of the planet, the word “fragmentation” seems to define our times.” The Aga Khan appealed to a concept rooted in the world’s great religious traditions and which is central to Islam: that all of humanity in its rich diversity is born “of a single soul.” He ended the lecture on an optimistic note: Society should be driven by hope.
Ismailimail 