The Aga Khan on Pluralism: A Global Political Philosophy for Humanity's Future?

The Ismailis are a smallish sect of Islam (under the Shia denomination), but are, for the most part, regarded as heretical or the butt of a 'No True Scotsman' fallacy by many other Muslim factions. Their history is convoluted, but the very secular characteristics of the religion are relatively recent developments that began with one of the group's spiritual leaders, the current Aga Khan's grandfather. There is, of course, a religious component focused on ritual, prayer, and faith, but it contains comparatively little dogma (and is adhered to in a strict sense, from what I can tell, mostly by the older generations). Attitudes towards women, education, human rights, etc. are secular and near indistinguishable from western ones. For these reasons, I find this group particularly interesting.

The Aga Khan and his family sit on a considerable amount of wealth, a good chunk of which goes towards supporting the Ismaili community and the Aga Khan Development Network (a non-profit, secular group of organizations dedicated to the improvement of education and the encouragement of economic development in 3rd world countries, primarily in Africa and Asia). He is highly regarded by many political leaders across the globe, and the interviews and speeches I've seen him give speak to a very broad historical and political knowledge base. His delivery is very charismatic and invites attentiveness, almost in a Trudeau-ish way - altogether a very interesting character I would like to devote some time to learning more about.

The LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium is an annual Canadian event that started in 2000 which features a guest invited to speak about current issues that relate to Canada's place/identity in the global political/cultural landscape. For 2010, the Aga Khan spoke about pluralism, a political philosophy centred around the acknowledgement of diversity. Many of the things he said resonated strongly with me on multiple levels, and seem especially poignant given many things going on in the news (and even on YouTube) in recent weeks... enough that I felt the need to share. For YouTube, I've condensed the speech down to what I feel are the most essential points, but to read the full speech transcribed verbatim, please go here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/verbatim-the-aga-khans-l...

And for a nice review:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/10/27/a-holy-man/?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4ccb3d3...

What are some of your opinions on what's being said in this speech? Do you think pluralism is an approach that can be adopted on a global scale, or are cultural/religious divides always going to be too great? I am particularly interested to hear thoughts on the compatibility of spirituality with pluralism. The Aga Khan argues that the former can enable the latter, but I am uncertain of this... Some religious groups/people may be enlightened in this regard, but it seems to me that organized religion is, for the most part, an entity that discourages the embracement of diversity. It would be cool to hear the thoughts of both theists and atheists on this...

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• philosophy
• discussion
• educational
• religion
• theism
• atheism
• spirituality
• politics
• aga
• khan
• pluralism
• Canada
• LaFontaine-Baldwin
• speech
• future
• humanity
• cosmopolitan
• ethic
• Ismaili
• muslims
• islam
• moderate
• secular
• cultural
• diversity

[Klingschor]

That was a really interesting video. May I ask if you know of any online english websites that cover Ishma'ili Fiqh?

[Tioliah]

@Klingschor I'm afraid I don't know of any - as far as I know, though, there is no Ismaili 'fiqh' in the same way there are for other denominations of Islam, since the Aga Khan as living Imam has supreme authority on matters of religious jurisprudence - any rules/laws relating to the faith are prescribed by him (so there's less of a reliance on scripture/theology for this). The closest related "school" of jurisprudence would be Jafari, but certainly not in any strict sense.

[Klingschor]

@Tioliah

What about the dictats of the Imams, like Jafar al-Sadiq? Do their decrees count for anything?

[Tioliah]

@Klingschor Only in more of an historical sense. The overarching theology of Ismailism is based on reason through argument/debate (kalam), so the approach to revelation is relative rather than absolute (i.e. always evolving). Which elements of the old schools are maintained and which are adapted are at the discretion of the current Imam, whose role is to successfully guide the community to prosperity (and he is supposed to be divinely suited to this task). At least that's how I understand it.

[Tioliah]

@Klingschor Here's a reference that should help if you'd like to know more:

THE ISMA'ILIS, THEIR HISTORY AND DOCTRINES 2nd ed. Farhad Daftary. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

[johnnystorm28]

Ismailis are the second largest branch of Shia sect. They are not the "smallish" branch of Shia sect.

[Tioliah]

@johnnystorm28 I apologize - bad wording - I meant relative to Muslims in general (the greater percentage of which are Sunni). Thanks for catching that - I've adjusted the sentence :-) Even though Ismailis are the 2nd largest Shia denomination in a relative sense, I thought the Twelvers largely dominated Shia Islam (over 80%?), but I could be wrong...

[panchguy]

deviated sect which abandonned the sunna of prophet(as) and his family(as)

[uhertz]

This boy obviously hasn't spent any time with Orientals or he wouldn't be supporting "pluralism"

[venkyhyundai]

@aknakjagu search for

"aga khan vacation" on youtube

or "aga khan enamorado" on google

and see what aga khan is all about!!

[aknakjagu]

@Tioliah thank you for the interaction..........I was indeed enlightened,just to mention the social and economical structure we lead our lives on don;t allow ismaili community to explode and be significant as it is an individual spiritual search and over decades peoples have either splite out or faded in the background.......as this fiqr is of conviction and not convineance as we tend to use.....socially or economicaly.so to speak. The splits. I would personally stick to 'smallish' .......!...

[aknakjagu]

@Tioliah thank you for the interaction..........I was indeed enlightened,just to mention the social and economical structure we lead our lives on don;t allow ismaili community to explode and be significant as it is an individual spiritual search and over decades peoples have either splite out or faded in the background.......as this fiqr is of conviction and not convineance as we tend to use.....socially or economicaly.so to speak. The splits. I would personally stick to 'smallish' .......!