“Our responsibility, I believe, is to think and correct the messages which are being sent around the world about our history and about our culture. We have to illustrate the fact that our world is a very diverse world, that it is a very beautiful world in its diversity. It goes from high mountains to deserts. It crosses oceans. It covers populations of different backgrounds, of different histories, and yet it is one brotherhood. It seems, therefore, that it is important that we illustrate this beauty in a way which the global community can understand.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Inauguration of Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum at the Islamic Arts Museum
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, March 31, 2012
Published in The Ismaili Canada, Issue 1, July 2012
Video
“In recent decades, inter-faith dialogue has been occurring in numerous countries. Unfortunately, every time the word “faith” is used in such a context, there is an inherent supposition that lurking at the side is the issue of proselytisation. But faith, after all, is only one aspect of human society. Therefore, we must approach this issue today within the dimension of civilisations learning about each other, and speaking to each other, and not exclusively through the more narrow focus of inter-faith dialectic.
His Highness the Aga Khan
Berlin, Germany, September 6, 2004
Speech at AKDN
“We don’t do enough to illustrate to the peoples of our world the greatness of the Islamic civilisations of cultures of the past… Because they don’t know our history, they don’t know our literature, they don’t know our philosophy, they don’t know the physical environment in which our countries have lived, they view the Ummah in terminology which is completely wrong….let’s revive our cultures so that modernity is not only seen in the terminology of the west, but in the intelligent use of our past…”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Aleppo, Syria, August 28, 2008
AKDN
Compiled by Nimira Dewji
Ismailimail 