Mufti Dr Nazirudin Nasir and his team from MUIS visit the Aga Khan Centre

The Mufti of Singapore, Dr Nazirudin Nasir, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee to establish an Islamic College, visited the Aga Khan Centre along with three officials from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore/MUIS), namely: Sharifah Thalha Syed Haron (Assistant Director, Higher Education), Tuty Raihanah Mostarom (Head, Higher Education & Research) and Sri Nurayu Mat Aris (Manager, Higher Education & Research). The MUIS team was in London to study various models for an Islamic College to be established in Singapore after the Prime Minister of Singapore announced it in August this year.

Hussain Jasani, Head of the South Asian Studies unit, received the guests, who were then taken on a tour of the AKC by Russell Harris, editor at IIS. As part of the tour, the delegates visited the Aga Khan Library (AKL), where Dr Walid Ghali introduced them to some of the special collections held at the AKL and by the Ismaili Special Collections Unit. The delegates were pleased with the tour and expressed their interest in benefiting from the rich collection of materials held by the AKL. Some of the delegates appreciated the way the design elements of the AKC expressed how an academic building informed by Islamic ideals and values could look.

Later, a meeting was organised between the visiting delegates and academic teams from the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) and The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS). Dean Professor Shahzad Bashir (AKU-ISMC) and Senior Executive Officer Dr Nadir El-Bizri (IIS) welcomed the guests. Both AKC-based institutions shared information on the high-quality academic and HR Development work they carried out and had a fruitful dialogue/exchange of ideas with the visiting delegation. After the meeting, Mufti Dr Nazirudin Nasir noted,

“Thank you so much for [the] most gracious hospitality extended to us yesterday. We learnt a lot and have been very inspired by the work done here.”

One of the delegates observed that the visit was “a truly eye-opening experience for me. We really learnt a lot from you and your colleagues who are overseeing so many important projects with significant global impact.”

The meeting was organised at the request of Dr Mustafa Izzuddin (Research Consultant, South Asian Studies unit and Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer, National University of Singapore) and coordinated by Hussain Jasani, Head of South Asian Studies at the IIS.