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Arrivée de l'Aga Khan lundi soir à Vancouver

Le chef spirituel des musulmans ismaéliens, l'Aga Khan, a été accueilli chaleureusement à Vancouver, lundi soir. Plus de 5000 personnes sont venues le saluer à son arrivée dans un hôtel du centre-ville. Certains ont attendu plus de deux heures, à la grande surprise des organisateurs de la visite à Vancouver.

De 25 000 à 30 000 personnes étaient attendues mardi soir au stade BC Place où l'Aga Khan devait s'adresser à ses disciples.

OTTAWA – Ismaili Muslims’ spiritual leader Aga Khan, the Founder and Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) arrived in Vancouver this week as part of an 8-day visit to Canada on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee. The Aga Khan, who is in Canada as a guest of the Government, is commemorating his fifty years of leadership as Imam of the Ismaili Muslims.

The last leg of the Aga Khan's tour commemorating his golden jubilee ended yesterday in Vancouver where he thanked Canada for offering Ismaili Muslims a chance to live in a safe society.
'I have to thank you for two reasons,' he began. 'Not only because you've received these men and women in Canada but you have given them the wherewithal to return to their countries in your cause. Bring back to Africa, bring back to Asia, bring back to East Africa the pluralism, the values of Canada, the knowledge society which you have created here in Canada.'

The Aga Khan teaches us that truly successful societies embrace pluralism.
In many local schools, especially on Vancouver's east side, diversity and pluralism is the norm.

I grew up as an Eastsider, and today my daughter attends her local elementary school near Fraser Street. Each year the school conducts a multicultural potluck dinner, where families sit shoulder-to-shoulder with cultures from around the globe. Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Filipinos, Chinese and Europeans of many stripes get together to share a meal and celebrate their community.

VANCOUVER - She was only nine, but Almira Bardai remembers the day the Aga Khan came to dinner at her mother's family home. She didn't get to join the 200 or so guests, but she knew the importance of seeing the spiritual Ismaili Muslim leader.'It was really, really special,' Bardai said Tuesday. 'I was really young but you understood that you were there in the presence of the Aga Khan. It was pretty amazing.'

On Tuesday afternoon, Bardai, now 31, joined tens of thousands of men in dark suits and women in colourful saris and cocktail dresses at BC Place to celebrate a visit by the Aga Khan.