Population: 33.5 million
Number of Ismailis: 80 000
Key Area: Ontario
The first Ismailis in Canada arrived with a wave of ethnically Indian refugees expelled from Uganda in 1972. On 4th August that year the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin issued a decree ordering the expulsion of non-Africans from his country. This included 80,000 Indians, almost half of whom were Ismailis. Many of these were descended from labourers brought in the 1890s from India to East Africa by the British Empire to construct the Kenya-Uganda railway.
Close to 6000 of these Indian-Ugandans decided to move to Canada and arrived in the autumn of 1972. They were followed in the early 1990s by an influx of Ismailis from Afghanistan. Since then the small Ismaili community, following the theology of their Imam, have integrated smoothly into Canadian life. They are now a prized section of Canada's population and hailed as a model of cultural integration. They and the Aga Khan seem to have considerable influence politically and Canada looks favourably on the pluralistic approach to life favoured by Ismailis.
Originally published 2 years ago