Ismaili Muslim leader says Canada's diversity model for the world
The Aga Khan thanked Canada for welcoming Ismailis, a moderate group within the Shia wing of Islam, who were forced to flee persecution and conflict in their own countries over the years.
'Canada has been the country which has been most generous, most thoughtful, most helpful in bringing people to Canada from these difficult backgrounds, offering them a new opportunity... to live in a society which is pluralist, which is conscious of quality, which is conscious of human development and human values. ...
'You have given them the wherewithal to return to their countries in due course and bring back to Africa, bring back to Asia... the pluralism, the values of Canada, the knowledge society that you have created here. ...
'Knowledge in its purest form is often abrasive,' the Aga Khan said. 'When this knowledge comes into these societies it creates difficulties, creates reactions because the societies are not prepared... What Canada has done is it has humanized that knowledge.'
