Texas governor Rick Perry hosting "Golden Jubilee" event with Muslim leader

Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to host a private dinner followed by fireworks near Austin on Saturday to honor the Aga Khan, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad celebrating his 50th year as the spiritual leader of a Muslim sect.

Earlier in the day, the leaders are expected to be on hand as the University of Texas signs an agreement with Aga Khan University, which has campuses in Pakistan and other countries, fostering student and teacher exchanges between the institutions.

The Shia Ismaili Muslims and their Imam, the Aga Khan, actually have condemned extremist interpretations of Islam such as the Wahhabis and the Taliban. In an interview given right after 9-11, the Aga Khan said that the Taliban of Afghanistan actually “condemn themselves” by forcing religion on people when the Quran says “there is no compulsion in religion”.

In a speech made at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in 2003, the Aga Khan condemned extremism with the following words:

“The revelation granted to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) opened new horizons and released new energies of mind and spirit. It became the binding force that held the Muslims together despite the far-flung lands in which they lived, the diverse languages and dialects they spoke, and the multitude of traditions – scientific, artistic, religious and cultural – which went into the making of a distinctive ethos. This message is still potent in the Muslim world today, although it is sometimes clouded, distorted and deformed by political interests and by struggles for power over the minds and hearts of people. There are attempts at transforming what are meant to be fluid, progressive, open-ended, intellectually informed, and spiritually inspired traditions of thought, into hardened, monolithic, absolutist and obscurantist positions. Yet there are many across the length and breadth of the Muslim world today who care for their history and heritage, who are keenly sensitive to the radically altered conditions of the modern world. They are convinced that the idea that there is some inherent, permanent division between their heritage and the world of today is a profoundly mistaken idea; and that the choice it suggests between an Islamic identity on the one hand and on the other hand, full participation in the global order of today is a false choice indeed.”

It is indeed a time for action! It is a time for all Americans to finally take notice of a prominent Muslim leader like the Aga Khan, the 49th hereditary descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, who tirelessly works to promote Islam as a thinking, spiritual faith of compassion, humanity and intellect. It is indeed time to seize the unique opportunity to dialogue with this brand of Islam, is it not?

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