Canada for us is a country of great, great importance. Why? Because, Canada has been able to build a pluralistic society, in a modern economy, well, Voil

I think we have difficulty making people around the world realise what is the Islamic World. One should not confuse Sub-Saharan Africa with Central Asia. One should not confuse Central Asia with countries of Asia such as Malaysia and Indonesia. These are different peoples, with different histories, that have been converted to Islam at different times, that have evolved since then, that have different languages, that have different interpretations.

We cannot take situations, which are individual, unique, and specific in time, in history, in geography and say, "All this represents the totality of more than a billion Muslims.

Il y a, en Occident, une absence totale d'

I hope very much that we can together enhance our own indigenous cultural expressions. They're free. Export them. Export them in the English language in such a way that the world has direct access to our own expressions of culture.

The pluralism of our world has existed for centuries. But during the cold war it was frozen. And when the cold war thawed, plurality became visible and I think that what we are learning to live with now is expressions of pluralism which in the past simply were not manifested in the same way. I think now the problem is how do you manage these expressions of pluralism?

I think that as a look ahead, one of my continuing questions is the nature pluralism. If you look around the world, today, some societies, some governments, some organizations, some people still challenge the notion of human pluralism. I think in the years ahead it's important that this notion of pluralism should be seen as much as possible everywhere as a human asset, not as a human liability.

The notion of pluralism, and the legitimacy of pluralism in human society is a massively important issue for us in development.

I think the message of Islam, is the dignity with which we must treat women in society. Now, the notion of how that happens in practice, is very much a question of interpretation. But the basic premise, is the dignity and equality of women in society. And that goes right through the revelation of Islam, it goes to the tradition and the life of the Prophet, and the Prophet's wife, Khatija, was a woman who participated actively in daily life.

My mission as Imam encompasses theology, the social sectors, economics, culture and even the environment. Philanthropy is no more significant now than it was in the time of my grandfather. We do not content ourselves only in giving, but we also try to teach local populations to provide for their own needs.