“What is needed – all across the world – is a new “cosmopolitan ethic” – rooted in a strong culture of tolerance.”
– Mawlana Hazar Imam at the Tutzing Evangelical Academy upon receiving the Tolerance Award, 20 May 2006.

Walking the streets and bazaars of Cairo a thousand years ago, one would have come across people from places as diverse as Sicily, Yemen, Spain and Afghanistan. By today's standards, Cairo would have been “cosmopolitan,” – a place where people from a wide range of ethnicities, cultures and religions lived in close proximity. Used by ancient philosophers to describe a universal love for humankind, cosmopolitanism has come to represent an ideal of all humanity belonging to a single moral community.

Rageh Omar addresses the audience at the Ismaili Centre. Ismaili Council for the UK

Today, a cosmopolitan London attracts people from beyond England's borders to work, study, live, and raise their familes. It was in this context that Rageh Omar, previously a BBC world affairs correspondent and currently with the Al-Jazeera English network, described his years of growing up as a Muslim in London in his address titled The Half in Search of the Other: Cosmopolitanism for the British Muslim.

Delivering the fifth lecture of the 2007 Ismaili Centre Lecture Series on the evening of 28 September, Omar conveyed the message that Islam as a faith, and Muslims as a community, could thrive in the West: “You can have a British identity but still be part of the wider global nation of believers.” In keeping with the series theme, Exploring the Cosmopolitan Ethic, Omar asserted that Islam, given its ethic of tolerance, is cosmopolitan by its very nature. He looked back at how Islam was able to break out of Arabia and attract believers from China to Spain within a short time of its revelation. When asked about how he reconciled his British nationality, Muslim faith, and his profession as a journalist, he replied that he had never viewed those aspects of his identity as being in conflict. Instead, they gave him strength and made him who he is.

The audience at the lecture series reflected a range of cultures, nationalities, faiths, and academic backgrounds. Ismaili Council for the UK

On the evening of 25 October, Professor Jan Aarte Scholte, deliverd the sixth and final lecture of the 2007 series, speaking on Constructing Intercultural Global Democracy. While democracy has traditionally been tied to a people within a country, Scholte argued that the term “people” now needed to be defined more broadly: people see themselves not just as British, but also as Londoners or as Welsh or even as European. However, using the Ismailis as an example, Scholte went on to demonstrate that the spaces defining people are no longer territorial. Faith, disability, caste, and gender all serve to define who we are and speak to our identities – demonstrating the diversity of individual hybridism within common physical spaces.

Jan Aart Scholte addresses the audience at the Ismaili Centre. Ismaili Council for the UK

The lectures were the first two to be delivered in the series since the beginning of the commemoration of Mawlana Hazar Imam's Golden Jubilee. The ideas of tolerance and pluralism espoused by both Omar and Scholte held a special resonance, as they underpin the motivation and ethical framework of the Aga Khan Development Network.

In 2008, the Ismaili Centre Lecture Series has continued its energetic and successful discussions under a new theme of Sharing the Narrative of Progress, which explores the importance of civil society in addressing the challenges of relieving poverty and achieving sustainable development. On 30 January 2008, a panel of notable academics and specialists assembled to discuss the role of faith-inspired civil society in post-conflict emerging states. The session titled Faith in Transition: Building the Post-Conflict Civil Society, was chaired by Allan Little of BBC News and featured a discussion on the vicious cycle of conflict and poverty, as well as the importance of sustainable security, economic growth, transitional justice, and the notion of citizenship in post-conflict societies.

In keeping with the ethos of the series, Professor Ismail Serageldin, from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, delivered the annual Milad-un-Nabi lecture in March, and spoke about how the Islamic world can draw from its heritage to engage with the growing “knowledge society” and address the deficits in knowledge institutions.

Now a fixture on the London scene, the 2008 Ismaili Centre Lecture Series will draw on a range of eminent scholars. Upcoming speakers include Professor Ali Paya, who will speak about civil society and Muslim identity; Professor Paul Collier, who will explore the tension between poverty and growth; Sir Richard Jolly, who will go further in exploring the role of civil society in the United Nations; and Lord Meghnad Desai, who will discuss the role of diasporic communities in development at an upcoming lecture on 23 April 2008.