Content Tagged with Pluralism

The Global Pluralism Award winners exemplify how to live peacefully and productively, while engaging with diversity.

The Global Pluralism Award ceremony was streamed to a worldwide audience on 23 February 2022, highlighting the organisations and individuals who demonstrate pluralism in action everyday.

The Global Pluralism Award winners will be selected from among 10 finalists, selected by the renowned international jury.

Join us for the Global Pluralism Award Ceremony on Wednesday, 23 February, where prizes will be presented to this year’s recipients. The ceremony will begin at 12 PM (EST) and will be streamed live on The Ismaili TV.

Global Encounters Camps offer participants a range of service-learning opportunities, leadership preparation, and thoughtful engagement on the pressing issues facing our planet.

After a two-year hiatus, Global Encounters hopes to host in-person residential camps in 2022, to be held in Kenya in June and in India and Pakistan in December.

The international environment at the IIS creates a dynamic space for collaboration where ideas are shared from diverse settings and backgrounds.

At The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), more than 50 students arrive in London every autumn at the start of the academic year to embark on a voyage of discovery. For those studying at the IIS, there is a deep sense of pluralism inherent in the student experience.

Maaza Mengiste delivered the 2021 Annual Pluralism Lecture from New York’s Centre for Fiction.

Ethiopian-American novelist Maaza Mengiste delivered the Global Centre for Pluralism’s eighth Annual Pluralism Lecture today, 19 May, following opening remarks by Princess Zahra. The lecture, entitled “The Moment of Encounter: History, Disruptions, and Transformations” was held virtually, in partnership with the University of British Columbia.

This year’s Annual Pluralism Lecture, presented by the Global Centre for Pluralism in partnership with the University of British Columbia, will be livestreamed on 19 May, and will feature opening remarks by Princess Zahra.

The Jamat is embracing virtual programming as an opportunity to connect and interact with each other across frontiers.

Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, many in the Ismaili community, and indeed, the global community, have collectively strived to achieve a sense of optimism towards the future, propelled by the value we place on human connection.

How can we begin to turn noble ideals into action and solutions to the challenges we face today?

The year 2020 has rapidly become one of the most disruptive in living memory. Just as one life-altering crisis becomes embedded in the collective consciousness, other developments gain attention, raising additional questions to address. Many of us are asking, what is our responsibility? What can we do, and how can we help?

Aziz Nathoo presents at the United Nations in New York City on the role of civil society and specifically on civil dialogue in interfaith spaces.

"I spend a lot of time learning about my faith and trying to be an exemplary ambassador of Islam in the world,” said Aziz Nathoo, who has immersed himself in teaching, dialogue, peacemaking, tolerance, and promoting pluralism for the past 20 years.

The Ismaili is pleased to present the official Imamat Day song for 2020. Mawla Mera Ishq Tu is an exclusive musical collaboration featuring 63 artists from around the world, to commemorate 63 years of Mawlana Hazar Imam’s Imamat. Translated as ‘Mawla You are My Love,’ the song aims to share love, light, and happiness with the global Jamat on this auspicious occasion. The artists bring different musical flavours from their respective homes, adding to a collective energy of unity, devotion, and celebration.

The Global Centre for Pluralism was created to advance positive responses to the challenge of living peacefully and productively together in diverse societies.

Meredith Preston McGhie was appointed as the Global Centre for Pluralism’s Secretary General in October 2019, and presided over the recent Global Pluralism Awards, alongside Mawlana Hazar Imam. Here she explains the meaning of pluralism, and how the Centre is addressing today’s urgent global challenges.

The Ismaili Centre was opened in 2009 in the presence of Mawlana Hazar Imam, Princess Zahra, and Prince Rahim.

As part of the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Ismaili Centre, Dubai, architects Rami El Dahan and Soheir Farid visited the Centre earlier this year and looked back on the successes and challenges in designing a welcoming building of timeless elegance.

Members of the audience listen intently as the Aga Khan Master Musicians perform at the Ismaili Centre Lisbon in December 2019.

On 18 December 2019, the Aga Khan Master Musicians with special guest Jasser Haj-Youssef delighted an audience at the Ismaili Centre, Lisbon. They highlighted the unity between different countries and continents, and between the present and the past by exploring various forms of classical, folk, jazz, and contemporary music.

The final creation of DiversiTree to celebrate the UAE’s Year of Tolerance.

In an effort to highlight the importance of tolerance, President of the UAE His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has proclaimed this year the ‘Year of Tolerance’. With this in mind, an event called DiversiTree was recently held at the Ismaili Centre Dubai. The project, which is part art installation and part performance art, brought together the collective creativity of the community to design a transformative experience for children and adults. This collaborative installation and performance brought to life the concept of diversity, while at the same time developing a breathtaking creation of artistic beauty.

By creating safe and inclusive spaces that reflect different traditions and heritages, the European Youth Camp enables a spirit of unity.

I’m surrounded by young people from all over Europe. Everyone looks, dresses and behaves differently. Actually we can hardly understand each other and have to use gestures to communicate. At home we eat different foods and have different customs, but here we are brothers and sisters in faith: This is European Youth Camp, and we are One Jamat

The United Nations is an intergovernmental organisation responsible for maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations, achieving international cooperation, and being a centre for harmonising the actions of nations.

The Ismaili had the opportunity to speak with four Ismaili women working at the United Nations (UN) to learn about their careers, their work, and the role of the UN over its 74 year history. 

The three winners of the 2019 Global Pluralism Award: Aung Kyaw Moe on behalf of the Centre for Social Integrity, an organisation that provides youth from Myanmar’s conflict-affected regions with the skills to be leaders for change; Deborah Ahenkorah, a Ghanaian social entrepreneur and book publisher; and Igor Radulović on behalf of Learning History that is not yet History, a network in the Balkans developing a new approach to teaching the history of conflict.

The Global Centre for Pluralism (GCP) hosted the second biennial Global Pluralism Award ceremony in November 2019. At the ceremony, presided over by Mawlana Hazar Imam and attended by many members of the GCP’s Board, including Princess Zahra, the Centre recognised three winners who will each receive a $50,000 grant to help them continue their work.

On the occasion of World Volunteer Day, 5 December 2019, The Ismaili is pleased to release the official song and music video to celebrate the centenary of the Ismaili Volunteer Corps (IVC), featuring participation from 41 countries across the world.

Mawlana Hazar Imam and Global Centre for Pluralism Secretary General Meredith Preston McGhie join the Global Pluralism Award recipients for a group photograph.

Mawlana Hazar Imam presided over the Global Pluralism Award ceremony on Wednesday 20 November, a biennial event hosted by the Global Centre for Pluralism. The Award recognises the extraordinary achievements of organisations, individuals, and governments around the world who exemplify living peacefully and productively with diversity.

Mawlana Hazar Imam and Princess Zahra are welcomed to Ottawa by Ameerally Kassim-Lakha, President of the Ismaili Council for Canada, on behalf of the Canadian Jamat.

Mawlana Hazar Imam arrived in Canada today, accompanied by Princess Zahra, in advance of a ceremony to recognise the recipients of the 2019 Global Pluralism Award.