Post updated
Why the world needs more Canada
In a new book, the Aga Khan argues that this country is a beacon of peace to others
Charles Enman / The Ottawa Citizen / Saturday, July 12, 2008 – Calgary Herald / July 20, 2008
A middling power can only smile when a world leader says not only that small is beautiful, but that that particular small country is not only competitive with the rest of the world, but in a leading spot.
And the Aga Khan, leader of millions of Ismaili Muslims around the world, says that and more about Canada.
“Canada has an experience of governance of which much of the world stands in dire need,” he writes in his latest book, Where Hope Takes Root: Democracy and Pluralism in an Interdependent World, published here in Canada.
Canada, he argues, has done a superlative job in bringing peoples of disparate race, ethnicity and religion together.
With people moving easily around the world today, there are more collisions between different groups than ever before. The result is “a world of increasing dissension and conflict, in which different ethnic, tribal, religious or social groups have often failed to search for, and agree upon, a common space for harmonious coexistence.”
Calgary Herald
The Ottawa Citizen
For decades, the Cold War assumed all the space as the international problem par excellence. With the Cold War now finished, the international community now needs to focus on “the need to create stable states with self-sustainable economies and stable, inclusive forms of governance.”
Inclusiveness has always been a necessary starting point for Canada. With three founding peoples — the First Nations, the French and the British — Canada was not going to get out of the starting gates without finding its way to inclusiveness.
All nations, but particularly those in the developing world, need several forms of instruction — first, in pluralism, the set of arrangements in which distinct groups find a place and are tolerated within a society, but also in how to build a strong civil society.
He quotes former prime minister Paul Martin on the subject: “One of the distinct ways in which Canada can help developing nations is to provide the expertise and experience of Canadians in justice, in federalism, in pluralistic democracy.”
Most of the world’s current problems, the Aga Khan believes, stem from the absence of pluralism and his cautionary list includes such trouble spots as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Canadians who know all about the problems that Canada deals with might wonder if the Aga Khan is a bit naive about this country. But he says explicitly that his “intention is not to embarrass you with too rosy a picture of the Canadian mosaic, as if it were free of all tension. But you have the experience, an infrastructure grounded in wisdom and the moral wherewithal to be able to handle challenges to your social and political fabric.”
The Ismailis, the second largest segment of the Shia Muslims, have appreciated Canadian tolerance for several decades.
Back in the 1980s, Canada accepted many Ismailis after their expulsion in the 1970s from Uganda by Idi Amin. The Aga Khan became a friend of Pierre Trudeau’s and has been made an honorary Companion of the Order of Canada.
The Aga Khan is establishing several important institutions in Canada, two of them here on Sussex Avenue. In the old war museum, he is setting up the Global Centre for Pluralism, an initiative that will study how emerging nations can set up successful societies. The centre should open doors in 2010 or 2011.
Further down on Sussex, he is building the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, which should open toward the end of this year. The Delegation will hold both the offices of the Aga Khan Foundation Canada and the world headquarters of the Aga Khan Development Network, a group of development agencies that work to improve developing societies around the world.
In Toronto, the Aga Khan is building the Aga Khan Museum, which will hold one of the largest collections of Muslim art outside the Muslim world. The doors should open in 2010 or 2011.
The Aga Khan assumed his hereditary title as leader of the Nizari Ismailis in 1957 at the age of 20, following his grandfather’s death. The Nizaris may number as many as 20 million around the world, of a total number of Ismailis which may reach 30 million.
The Aga Khan often refers to the lack of understanding that exists between the western world, on one hand, and the Muslim nations and the Muslim diaspora in the West, on the other.
The much vaunted “Clash of Civilizations” that some see between the Muslim and the Western world would more properly be called a “Clash of Ignorance,” he says.
The West knew next to nothing about Shia Islam before the 1979 revolution in Iran, he points out. Nor did the West know anything of Wahhabi Islam before the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
“Please remember that we are talking about a religion that one-fifth of the world’s population follows,” he writes. “This ignorance is equivalent to Muslims being unaware of the distinction between Catholics and Protestants within Christianity.”
Some in the Muslim world, he acknowledges, have mistrusted modern education, but he adds that “Those with an educated and enlightened approach are of the firm, sincere conviction that their societies can benefit from modernity while remaining true to tradition.”
The Aga Khan believes one of the great threats to Western values is the incidence of failed democracies in the Muslim world, in Latin America, in Eastern Europe and in sub-Saharan Africa. This is partly due to the fact that democracy, which developed over centuries in the older democracies, cannot be implanted overnight in countries of totalitarian tradition.
He estimates that 40 per cent of UN member states are failed democracies — a problem that will not improve until they develop a greater commitment to pluralism, to meritocracy and to civil society. In other words, learn the lessons that Canada has had to master from its very beginning.
The Aga Khan knows his work will never end, because humans are not natural pluralists. The value of pluralism must be inculcated anew in each generation. But its rewards ñ peace, material progress, and social unity ñ are worth the ongoing effort.
“Building and sustaining a pluralist society is always going to be a work in progress. It doesn’t have a finite end.”
Where Hope Takes Root: Democracy and Pluralism in an Interdependent World, by His Highness the Aga Khan and published by Douglas & McIntyre, is in stores now.
Related:
Where Hope Takes Root – By: His Highness The Aga Khan
Where Hope Takes Root made it to the top 10 bestselling non-fiction books in Canada
New Book ‘Where Hope Takes Root’ is now available
The Aga Khan’s Adoring Message to Canada
Leader of Ismaili Muslims praises Canada for its inclusive government
Ismailimail 