By CHRISTOPHER QUINN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution – Famous Muslim philanthropist, businessman to visit Atlanta
Published on: 04/12/08
He mixes business with philanthropy, providing jobs and infrastructure to poor parts of the world. His widely diversified business interests include dams, power plants, communications and manufacturing. They finance micro loans of less than $100 and control banks and insurance companies that hold billions in assets. There are hundreds of schools and two universities, and hundreds of health clinics, and cultural centers. He has helped preserve and restore millions of dollars worth of culturally important historic sites.
He has said in rare interviews that he is building the infrastructure that is the foundation for countries’ successes.
Avoiding the paparazzi won’t be a problem for the Aga Khan when he dines at the Governors Mansion Friday.
The lack of photographic gadflies in Atlanta will be a break for the man born Karim al-Hussaini, one of the world’s premiere philanthropists and businessmen who gets mentioned in the social pages of European newspapers.
Though he is not as well known here as billionaires such as Bill Gates, the Aga Khan has a cachet no American will ever have.
He traces his descent from the Prophet Mohammed.
Thanks to his high-living father, the 71-year-old also once called actress Rita Hayworth his stepmother.
He is a man of other seeming contradictions in Western eyes.
His interpretation of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, is the last word for the 15 million Ismaili Muslims who follow him. But strict Muslims from other groups frown upon his stables of race horses on which people gamble.
He is deferred to by Ismailis as if he were a medieval prince, but he is a force for modernization and pluralism in Islam.
He is fabulously rich but runs one of the world’s largest private development networks focusing on the poor.
This socially conspicuous but very private man arrives in Georgia Thursday.
He is visiting Ismailis around the world to celebrate his 50th anniversary as Aga Khan, a hereditary title conferred on him by his grandfather.
He will also make time to chat with people from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about cooperating with some of his Middle Eastern and south Asian medical facilities to keep an eye on infectious and chronic diseases.
Friday, he dines with Perdue and about 75 guests in his honor.
just as the Dalai Lama has head of state equivalence. We are talking about someone who, if you will, is kind of a prince or lord and leader of this group,” said Gordon Newby, professor of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University.
The Ismailis are one of several minority offshoots of Shiites, one of the two major branches of Islam.
Westerners know Shia Muslims as those who control the government in Iran and as the religious order of Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr, the glowering Iraqi power broker whose militias often clash with American soldiers.
But the Ismailis know what it is to clash with other Muslims, who have persecuted them in the past.
Because of that, and because of their community’s emphasis on education and its entrepreneurial spirit they have dispersed around the globe. Ismaili students arrived in Georgia in the 1960s and 1970s planting the seeds from which the community has grown. There are about 5,000 in Georgia.
Ismailis pay the Aga Khan a tithe of their money every year, and he in turn uses the money to support his development network. He also inherited the family fortune, which includes global business interests.
The personal worth of the man, who lives in France and has British citizenship, is a closely held information, but his works and interests are evident in Africa and south Asia, where his family roots lie.
He mixes business with philanthropy, providing jobs and infrastructure to poor parts of the world. His widely diversified business interests include dams, power plants, communications and manufacturing. They finance micro loans of less than $100 and control banks and insurance companies that hold billions in assets. There are hundreds of schools and two universities, and hundreds of health clinics, and cultural centers. He has helped preserve and restore millions of dollars worth of culturally important historic sites.
He has said in rare interviews that he is building the infrastructure that is the foundation for countries’ successes.
Vartan Gregorian, the president of New York’s Carnegie Corporation, has known the Aga Khan for 30 years.
“He is not only a spiritual leader, but he sets the tone as a kind of constructive bridge builder between East and West,” Gregorian said by phone.
The Aga Khan encourages his followers to participate in the cultures where they find themselves. He embraces change and the best of modernism, such as science, education for women and interfaith dialogue, he said.
In Atlanta, Ismaili youth help coordinate the annual Partnership Walk, which raises money for Third World relief. It attracted about 7,000 participants last year. They volunteer at charities such as MedShare International in Decatur and Habitat for Humanity.
Newby said, “You don’t hear about him a lot, but those who do know him find him to be someone who is working steadily and quietly for peace and for making the world a better place.”
ISMAILI ISLAM
There are an estimated 15 million Ismailis worldwide out of more than 1 billion Muslims. They take their name and divide with other Muslims over an eighth-century disagreement over religious leadership. They are the followers of Ismail bin Jafar, whose descendants now hold the title Aga Khan, referred to by followers as His Highness.
The Aga Khan’s family roots lie in Iran, but the family fled to Pakistan and India in the 1840s after political troubles.
Ismailis believe in more esoteric, layered meanings rather than literal translations of the Quran, Islam’s holy book. The Aga Khan, called the imam (religious leader) of the time, is the final authority on interpretation and religious questions.
Part of Ismailis’ religious duty as defined by the Aga Khan is allegiance to and participation in the country they live in, along with self-reliance, education and charity.
Ismailis meet, as do other Muslims, on Friday for religious services. Non-Ismailis may not participate because of religious requirements of ritual purity. A distinctive part of their ceremonies includes ginans, which are poetic songs and recitations of spiritual wisdom and theology.
There are differences with other branches of Islam, such as praying three times a day rather than the five times required by mainstream Muslims.
THE AGA KHAN:
• 1959 graduate of Harvard with a degree in Islamic history.
• 49th Ismaili imam (religious leader) descended from Muhammad.
• The Ismaili community once weighed his grandfather, the preceding Aga Khan, and gave him his weight in diamonds, reported to be 243 pounds.
THE AGA KHAN DEVELOPMENT NETWORK:
• Owns stakes in 90 companies worldwide.
• Employs more than 30,000 people and produces annual revenues of more than $1.5 billion.
• Oversees 325 schools and two universities.
• Operates nine hospitals and 190 clinics and community health centers in 30 countries.
• Established a $58 million endowment at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to promote and preserve Islamic architecture.
U.S. AGA KHAN FOUNDATION • Nonprofit working in relief, education and development.• Nonprofit working in relief, education and development.
• Collected $38,986,474 in donations and $14,645,583 in grants.
• Held $115,041,902 in total assets in 2005.
Sources: Aga Khan Development Network, federal documents and media reports.
Source : The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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