As 50 000 followers watched, Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan III, wearing a silk coat and blue turban, hefted his 110kg [242.5 lbs.] on to a brocade chair connected to a scale loaded with diamonds.Westerners are often shocked by the mental picture conveyed here, assuming the dinero goes into the folds of the Iman's robes. The Aga Khan argues that's not correct ...
The event in India in 1946 was to mark the 60th anniversary of his role as spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims and to raise cash from his followers.
Shah's grandson and successor, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, still collects cash from his followers, who tithe 12.5 percent of their income to the imam. He has chosen a quieter approach than his ancestor.
"I don't think any reasonably educated Western individual would think that all the assets of the Vatican belong personally to the pope."He makes a good point as far as I can see; after all the Pope ...
... received $51.7 million (R341 million) in 2004 from Catholic contributions known as Peter's pence, the Aga Khan won't say how much he raises from his followers each year or disclose how the money is spent. Nor will he divulge all the sources of the $325 million that his development network, which has diplomatic status in 10 countries, ploughs into projects last year. [...]It's certain there aren't many Ismaili in the United States (due to the laws and regulations for non-profits and NGO's) because in addition to tithes from his followers ...
The scarce information about Ismaili finances bothers Akbarally Meherally, whose father helped load diamonds on to the scales in 1946 after making a large cash donation. "He has never submitted any proof of what he's doing with Ismaili tithes," Meherally says of the Aga Khan. He quit the sect in 1988.
... the Aga Khan obtains bank loans and grants from Western governments and aid organisations to finance his empire.The Ismaili seem to be the kind of Muslims the world would more readily accept. They appear to be non-militant and peaceful coexisting people ... at least on the surface. Wouldn't it be cool if the rest of Islam followed their example? But don't count on it, the Ismaili are Shi'a, which is not cool to a Sunni!
His firms, with total sales in 2004 of $1.36 billion, stretch from Pakistan's second-largest lender, Habib Bank, to Kenyan bean farms.
He also owns stakes in two car dealerships in Edmonton [Washington] in the US: Mayfield Toyota and T&T Honda.
The Aga Khan has expanded the institutions started by his grandfather into a non-denominational network of 325 schools, two universities, 11 hospitals and 195 health clinics in 30 countries, mostly where poorer Ismailis live, from Tajikistan to Uganda.And a shrewed business philosophy probably opens many capitalist doors ...
Most of the institutions charge their clients fees, even the poorest. ... The Aga Khan says his goal is to create schools and hospitals that can support themselves, while fostering economic growth in the world's poorest countries.I still have problems with any flavor Muslim, but this one is, on the surface, more appealing to my taste buds.
"They're fee paying because in the long run, what you're trying to do is to create self-sustaining institutions," says the Aga Khan, a British citizen who travels with a French diplomatic passport and lives in a chateau 42km north of Paris. "You've got to get the economy moving."
Aga Khan; Politics; Islam; Ismaili; Muslim; Religion; Shi'a; Sunni
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