Ismaili Community in Contemporary Situation

Recent history (19th-21st Century)
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kmaherali
Posts: 25105
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Ismaili Community in Contemporary Situation

Post by kmaherali »

Starting over
By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Ugandan Asians deported by President Idi Amin 40 years ago built their new lives in Britain


Forty years have passed since we Ugandan Asians were banished from our lush homeland by President Idi Amin. In the autumn of 1972, more than 28,000 deportees, dazed and bereft, arrived in the UK. They left behind homes, businesses, insurance policies, bank accounts, land, deeds, shrines, graves, mosques, temples, churches, jewellery and many their hearts. They were British passport holders. Those without went to Canada, Scandinavia, the US, India and Australia.

More....

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/fd23a2ca-ecb0 ... z24X2g7mVL
kmaherali
Posts: 25105
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Ismaili Anniversary

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/is ... index.html

******

Historic documents of 1972 immigration of Ugandans to Canada given to Carleton

Carleton University has received what is believed to be “the most comprehensive collection of documents” reporting the immigration of 6,000 Ugandan Asians to Canada in the summer and fall of 1972.

The Canadian Immigration Historical Society and its partners officially handed over the collection to the university on June 20.

“At the time when this was happening people’s minds weren’t on preserving history, but this is what this archive does. It actually preserves our history as stories,” says Salim Fakirani, who was only two when his family left Uganda at the exodus order of dictator Idi Amin.

The collection will be accessible on the Internet by Sept. 28, just after the 40-year anniversary of Amin’s order, says the society.

It includes hundreds of British, American, Canadian and Ugandan newspaper clippings and a day-by-day narrative of the three-month immigration process conducted by Canadian immigration officials based in Uganda.

“It’s a significant event in Canadian history. It’s the first large-scale non-European immigration to Canada … so it’s worth studying from an academic standpoint,” says Fakirani.

Many of the Ugandan Asians who travelled to Canada had university degrees from England, says Ginette Leroux, a visa worker who helped hand out about 2,600 immigration applications a day during her month’s work in the East African country.

“They were very pleasant people and they were very educated people. I think we were lucky to get them,” she says. “I think as far as immigrants and immigration goes, we got the cream of the crop.”

The collection couldn’t have come at a better time for the university’s Institute of African Studies, says professor and director Blair Rutherford, as there’s a new first-year course starting in September that looks at African refugees.

It should also help students in courses such as history, anthropology and political science, he says. Graduate students will benefit, too.

“We have students who do master’s and PhD theses on this topic. In fact, I know a few students looking at Ugandan Asians in Canada, so this is excellent material they can access directly on campus.”

Fakirani looked over the collection before it was given to Carleton and says more than just students and researchers will read its contents.

“It’s just unbelievable the amount of documentation there is of what happened during that period,” he says. “For those interested, including the South Asian community, it’s incredible.”

http://carletonnow.carleton.ca/august-2 ... -carleton/
kmaherali
Posts: 25105
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Ismailis In Central Asia

The term "Central Asia" will include here the mountainous regions of China, Soviet Union, including Hindukush, Pamir, Yarkand, Wakhan, Oxus, Shagnan, Gilgit, Hunza and Chitral.

During the period of Imam al-Mustansir billah, Nasir Khusaro was designated as a hujjat of Khorasan and Badakhshan. He came from Khorasan and launched mass conversion in Central Asia. When public pressure against him escalated, he found refuge in Yamghan, in the court of Ali bin al-Asad, an intellectual Ismaili prince in the mountainous region of Badakhshan. Thus Yamghan became synonymous with prison, where he died.

The descendants of Syed Khamush Shah Shirazi entered China soon after the reduction of Alamut in 1256 and spread in Sikiang, Kashgar, Rashkam, western Mongolia and Chinese Turkistan. In the 5th generations of Syed Sohrab Wali was a certain da'i, called Syed Muhammad Ibrahim, who had gone to China. His descendants also entered Russia. In 1930, another da'i called Syed Shah Ghulam from Chitral had gone to China and was killed by the government. The amil represents the office of the Mukhi in every village. They utter Ya Ali Madad by putting their hands on their knees. When the guest departs, they utter Khuda Hafiz by putting their hands on their knees in the same manner. In 1937, Abdul Shah had to go on an official visit to China. Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah had told him to deliver waez and impart the Ismailis in China, which he did successfully. The Present Imam also made a tour of China between October 19, 1981 and October 29, 1981.

The Present Imam's visit to Moscow in January, 1995 marked a milestone in the history of the Imamate and a significant new phase in its international development activities. This visit, Imam's first ever to Russia, was organized in response to an invitation extended by the Russian government in 1994. Almost from the moment the official motorcade conveyed Imam from Vnukovo Airport to the State dacha, through Moscow's snow-lined streets, in sub-zero temperature, began five very full days. During his stay in Moscow, the Imam held a series of meetings with officials at the highest levels of federal and local government. His busy schedule included meetings with the Mufti of the Muslims of Central European Russian, Shaikh Ravil Gainoutdin and with the Orthodox Patriarch of All Russia, His Holiness Alexy II at the respective headquarters of the institutions headed by the two religion leaders. In an event unprecedented in the known recorded history of the Imamate, on the 29th January, 1995, the Imam went to grant a didar to members of the jamat of the Central Asian tradition of the Ismaili tariqah. Gathered in Moscow's Olimpiski Stadium, were members of the jamat living in and around Moscow and others who had come from various countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, many of whom traced their origin to the Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan.

Tajikistan belongs to the larger Badakhshani Ismaili constituency and represents vividly the spiritual and cultural heritage of Ismailis. The current Ismaili population is found in the Badakhshan province and other parts of Tajikistan. Many Ismailis have also migrated to Kyrgyzstan (Osh and Bishkek), Kazakhstan (Alma Ata) and Russia (Moscow, Saint Petersberg, Saratov and other cities). The Present Imam became the first Imam in the known recorded history of the Ismailis to have traveled to grant didar in Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic at the invitation of their governments between May 22, 1995 and May 31, 1995. The Imam visited Dushanbe, Khorog, Roshtkala, Murghab, Sijd, Ishkashim, Rushan and in Bishkek.

The foundation stone ceremony of the Ismaili Centre was performed in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on August 30, 2003 in presence of the Imam, President Rahmonov of Tajikistan, the Mayor Ubaidulloev and other distinguished leaders. The Imam launched a landmark cultural center in Dushanbe, marking a milestone in the 1300-year history of the jamat in Central Asia. The landscaped complex that will initiate a revitalization of cultural, educational and contemplative space and urban regeneration in Dushanbe, will also be the first permanent place of gathering and organization for the jamat of Central Asia.

Politically, the Gilgit Agency is sub-divided into various areas like Yasin, Punial, Gupis and Ishkoman. The Ismailis resided thickly in Hunza state, where the Present Imam toured between October 20, 1960 and October 24, 1960. Presently, there are 55 Jamatkhanas in Gilgit Agency, 125 Jamatkhanas in Punial and Ishkoman, 147 Jamatkhanas in Gupis and Yasin and 111 Jamatkhanas in Hunza State.

There are about 1,60,000 Ismailis in Chitral, or its 35% population belongs to the Ismailis. Till 1949, there were no Jamatkhanas in Chitral. Prayers were offered within the houses. In 1949, however, Jamatkhanas were built throughout the area. There are now 264 Jamatkhanas in Upper Chitral and 167 Jamatkhanas in Lower Chitral.

By: Ibrahim Machiwala

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Mumtaz Ali Tajddin S. Ali is an popular Ismaili Scholar, Written many books on Islam and Ismailism, Ismailis in Central Asia is taken from Encyclopedia of Ismailism, also read 101 Ismaili Heroes

http://www.articledashboard.com/Article ... sia/571636
kmaherali
Posts: 25105
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Post by kmaherali »

Contemporary Ismaili Renewal: Khorog Events in Perspective
Zamira Dildorbekova, University of Exeter

A Department of Politics seminar
Date 31 October 2012
Time 13:00 to 14:30
Place Amory A239AB

An Exeter Central Asian Studies research group seminar

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/events/det ... ?event=654
kmaherali
Posts: 25105
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Let’s not forget that in Canada we are all migrants: Hume

Excerpt:

Toronto has seen waves of refugees. In the 1950s, it was Hungarians escaping Communism. In the ’70s, it was Ismaili Muslims fleeing Idi Amin’s Uganda. Then came the Boat People.


Each group has enriched the city. The opening of the extraordinary Ismaili Centre/Aga Khan Museum complex last year was a powerful reminder of how much these communities have contributed.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/09 ... igran.html
kmaherali
Posts: 25105
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

As received:
========

VERY VERY URGENT. PLEASE SHARE THIS EMAIL WITH AS MANY UGANDANS AS POSSIBLE.


Subject: FW: Schedule of expropriated properties to be sold in Uganda
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2015 12:54:58 -0600

Schedule of expropriated properties to be sold in Uganda After The Departure of Asians.Is your property listed here for Disposal ?

1. United Cotton Merchant Ltd. 467 22 Ginnery Site Amuria
2. Lawrence Mascarenhas 299 25 24 29 Kalagala Road Bombo
3. M. L. Vadera Bugaya Ginnery Bugaya T/C
4. Mahanlal Haridas 1 Grant Bugiri
5. Nanjibhai Prabhudas & Co. Ltd. 381 12 16 Saza Road Bugiri
6. Nanji Prabdudas & Co. Ltd. 381 14 3 Saza Road Bugiri
7. Associated Cotton Producers Ltd. 391 1 22 Saza Road Bugiri
8. 92 Bulo Bulo T/C
9. Reg. Trustee of Ind. Public School 267 2 School Site Bulopa
10. Thakrar Devji Diwaliben 286 9 12 A Bulopa T/C
11. Tanna Gordhandas Dulabhji 24 C Bulopa T/C
12. Karbani Abubaker Fakirmohamed 1 Bunagana T/C
13. 501 4 353 Bunamwaya T/C
14. Emmanuel Nicholas Milidachi 187 24 10 acres at Bunamwaya Bunamwaya T/C
15. Reg. Trustees of Busembatia 527 17 1 Busembatia Busembatia
16. Nathbhai Noor Mohamedz 4 D Main Street Busia T/C
17. 8 B Majanji Road Busia T/C
18. Pamba Limited 133 18 Buyonjo Ginnery Res.
Quars.
Busoga
19. Pamba Limited 400 21 3 Kiani Cotton Market Busoga
20. Reg. Trustees Busolwe Indian Ed. 373 22 Busolwe Road 2,754 acres Busolwe T/C
21. Hazara Singh Sondh 607 21 Plot at Magamaga Butembe
22. Chunilal T. Hirji Popat 828 9 Land at Buwenge Butembe
23. Marthurdas Jairam 90 23 4 B Buyende Buyende

24. 90 5 1 A Buyende Buyende
25. 90 4 3 A Buyende Buyende
26. 90 24 2 B Buyende Buyende
27. Karsan Sultan Abji 287 10 1 Rukiidi III Street Fort Portal
28. Amarshi Chotai Bhanji & 2 others 289 25 8 Coronation Gulu
29. 83 23 94 Main Street Iganga
30. Hoima Cotton Co. 524 17 Land at Namutumba Iganga
31. Hoima Cotton Co. 424 3 Land at Namutumba Iganga
32. Bukova Ginnery Residential Qua. 147 20 Bukova Ginnery Iganga
33. Bukova Ginnery Residential Qua. 86 6 Bukova Ginnery Iganga
34. Chandrakalaben Jinalal M. w/o 457 1 8 Kutch Road West Jinja
35. Adrian D’Cruz 186 4 19 Lubas Road Jinja
36. Vithaldas Haridas Charitable T. 147 11 60A &B Main Street Jinja
37. Reg. Trustees of Lohana
Community
77 Main Street Jinja
38. Najmudin Abdulali 1 13 78 Main Street Jinja
39. A. J. D’Cruz 214 22 44 Nile Gardens Jinja
40. Kotecha Shantilal 14 7 10 Nizam West Jinja
41. 5 Scanlen Place Jinja
42. Arlinda Emericanan Fernandes 219 22 5 Martin Road Jinja
43. The Gulu Cotton Co. 366 18 Naigobia Gulu Cotton Jinja
44. The Busoga Ginners 366 17 Bukova Busoga Ginners Jinja
45. Jayantil G. Kotecha & 3 others 186 2 4 Bell Avenue Jinja
46. Kirebeki Tea Estates Ltd. 28 20 1 153 Kirebeki Tea Estate Kabale
47. Madhvani Sugar Works Ltd. 18 Mutambuka Road Kabale
48. Teso Cooperative Union 530 10 Land at Kaberamaido Kaberamaido
49. Yusuf Mohamed Rahemtulla 567 22 Plot for cattle ferry Kaberamaido

50. Yusuf Mohamed Rahemtulla 567 17 Residential Site at Kele
[PRT
Kaberamaido
51. Piltok Ginners & Millers Ltd. 187 18 Oil Mill & Soap Factory Kaberamaido
52. Piltok Ginners & Millers Ltd. 187 16 Oil Mill & Soap Factory Kaberamaido
53. Najmudin Abdulali 151 2 2 B Kaguru Kaguru T/C
54. Buiga Island Buiga Saw Mill Kalagala
55. Piltok Ginners & Millers Ltd. 125 6 Piltok Residential Site Kalaki
56. Shree Kaliro Hindu Union 11 24 53 Zibondo Road Kaliro
57. Mohamed Sarwar & 2 others 369 23 300 Kampala
58. Reginald J. Smith & F. Walley 613 4 36 Upper Kololo Terrace Kampala
59. M. V. Patel & Rambhai
Bhagwandas
382 2 215 12 Kibuga Kampala
60. Inter Africa Transport Company 704 19 34-36 Kibira Road Kampala
61. Eusebius T. C. J. D’Esouza 337 20 65A Kibuga Kampala
62. Noordin Somji 421 18 189 4 Kibuga Block Kibuga Kampala
63. Jamji Ladha Dalal FR33 18 Land at Mbuya Kampala
64. Kyadondo Coffee Factory FR31 17 Kampala
65. Popat Shah 321 1 322 Kibuga Kampala
66. Manibhai M. Patel Ltd. FR31 7 Bujuta Estate Kampala
67. Manshukhlal Monhalal Unadkat FR66 4 Land at Kawempe Kampala
68. Sugar Corporation (U) Ltd. 29 20 Kampala
69. J. C. Mehta & A. J. Varia 366 4 211 Kibuga Kampala
70. Jashbhai B. Patel 365 24 330 Kibuga Kampala
71. Asgaralli Rajabali Mavani 313 4 131 12 Mengo Area Kampala
72. Somji Noordin 421 18 189 4 Kibuga Kampala
73. 1139 Bombo Road Kampala
74. Dilbagah Singh and Bros. 208 Bombo Road Kampala
75. Vinochandra S. Ruwala & Jagdish 233 5 16 Bukoto Street Welcometokampala anda (Kampala)

76. Virajlal Bhagwanji Peshawaria 246 20 27 Bukoto Street Kampala
77. Mrs. Rahim Bibi w/o Adbul Haq 362 13 115 4 Butikiro Road Kampala
78. 486 Bwaise Kampala
79. P. H. Patel & Z . R. Amin 211 362 Kagugube Kampala
80. FRV66 7 132/257 204 Kawempe Kampala
81. 208 Kawempe Kampala
82. 211 Kawempe Kampala
83. 223 Kawempe Kampala
84. 484 208 Kawempe Kampala
85. 516 208 Kawempe Kampala
86. 87 Kawempe Kampala
87. Harmanbhai Rambai Patel 417 14 154 12 Kibuga Kampala
88. Kamrudin P. Amarshi & Fazal 373 6 395 9 Kibuga Kampala
89. Husein Allibhai Lalani 373 3 396 4 Kibuga Kampala
90. Sheramohamed Kassam Janali 398 4 Kibuga Kampala
91. Sugrabak w/o A. Mohamedali &12 417 15 211 Kisenyi Road Kampala
92. 1507 244 Kisugu Estate Kampala
93. Janmohamed Madatali Jaffer 2 & 4 Kololo Hill Drive Kampala
94. Trustees of Indian Sports Club 234 19 1/13 Mackay Road Kampala
95. Sultanali Hassam Halani 466 7 18 Mackenzie Vale Kampala
96. Bawa Singh Bharj (Properties) L 651 22 136 Makindye Area Kampala
97. Godrej Jamshedji Pardiwalla 653 19 199 Makindye Area Kampala
98. Kassamali Nanji Natwani 590 23 122 7 Mengo Area Kampala
99. The Uganda Coffee Curing Co. 377 5 56 2 Kibuga Block Kampala
100. 51 25 Land in Kawempe Kampala
101. 132 Mufunya Road Kampala
102. Estates & Agencies Ltd. 306 25 137 10 Mengo Area Welcometokampala Uganda

103. Ratan Singh and Serwan Singh 361 5 110 29 Mulago Hill Road Kampala
104. Narendra Chunibhai Patel 437 1 293 29 Mulago Hill Road Kampala
105. Ismael Juma & Juma Dhanani 379 23 Z Bukoto Land in Bukoto Kampala
106. Akbarali Tarbhai 68 Nakivubo Road Kampala
107. John Bonnie Simon 208 25 Off Mawanda Kampala
108. Dhanji Jenabai Karim 6 Rubaga Road Kampala
109. S. J. L. Zake (United Carbide Ltd.) 808 9 1 Summit View Kampala
110. The Invested Properties Ltd. 45 4 16/18 William Street Kampala
111. N. H. Karia 350 5 94 William Street Kampala
112. Lal Singh Chanda 338 9 182 29 Mulago Kampala
113. Naghjibhai Lalubhai Patel 344 22 177 Bwaise Kampala
114. Mahendra Vaghjibhai Patel 344 23 176 Bwaise Kampala
115. Elias Eustratiou 10 14 40 Kampala Road Kampala
116. Akbaralli Allibhai 346 16 8 Makerere Kampala
117. Karam Chand & Shah Mohamed 379 13 168 12 Mengo Kampala
118. Uganda Brushware Manuf. Ltd. FRV78 24 168 204 At Kawempe At Kawempe Kampala
119. Nauman Gepp (East Africa Ltd.) FRV70 8 42 At Mbuya Kampala
120. Reg. Trustee of Kotli Young A 312 23 108 12 Mengo Kampala
121. Govind Jina 351 13 126 Mengo Kampala
122. Sunderlal Treon & R. Ram FRV51 25 10 acres at Kawempe Kampala
123. Chhnchal Manekchand & 3 others 313 5 132 12 Mengo Kampala
124. Pritam Kaur d/o Sadhu Singh 500 5 454 Mengo Kampala
125. Bhalchandra Dasharathlal Jani 371 2 223 Kampala Kampala
126. Karmali Dharamsi 371 3 231 Kampala Kampala
127. Sequeira, J. H. & Sequeira, S. M. 691 20 81 Bukoto Kampala
128. C. V. Alobo & B. P. I. Lobo 691 18 97 Bukoto Kampala
129. D’Cruz, J. I. & D’Cruz, C. 691 19 98 Bukoto Speak Out Uganda Kampala

130. Naranbhai Kunvarji 468 18 364 12 Kibuga Block Kampala
131. Inder Singh 369 24 294 Kampala
132. Ali Yusuf Ishakia 312 19 Kampala
133. Chhotabhai Lalljibhai Patel 409 12 187 12 At Mengo Kampala
134. Chotalal D. Pacholi & 2 others 446 6 169 12 At Mengo Kampala
135. Fida Alli Dharamsi & 2 others 370 23 220 Kampala
136. Harnan Kaur & Atma Singh Sian 607 22 396 Kyadondo Kampala
137. Mohan Singh Hando & M. S.
Jando
827 1 660& 666 At Mengo Kampala
138. Purushottam A. Patel MRV199 6 74 2 Bukesa, Kyadondo Kampala
139. Combined Building Co. Ltd. 583 7 464 At Namirembe Kampala
140. 377 7 52 2 At Namirembe Kampala
141. 387 21 53 2 At Namirembe Kampala
142. 370 15 54 2 At Namirembe Kampala
143. Butaba Saw Mills Limited 157 14 Butaba Estate Kampala
144. Kantibhai Mani Patel 695 18 586 29 Kibuga Block Kampala
145. Roshanali K. Sayani 379 20 N Bukoto Kampala
146. Mahendrad Vaghjibhai Patel 344 23 176 Kyadondo Kampala
147. Swan Singh Basson 699 16 183 29 Undeveloped land Kampala
148. Eusebio Martinho Souza 304 18 145 At Kawempe Kampala
149. Akbaralli Valimahomed 377 3 119/1&
119/
At Mulago Hill Kampala
150. Roshan Hussein 430 23 199 10 Kibuga Block Kampala
151. Badrudeen Jafferali 430 22 198 10 Kibuga Block Kampala
152. Jafferali Nazarali Walji 430 21 203 10 Kibuga Block Kampala
153. Ramanbhai Harmanbhai Patel 409 8 153 12 At Mengo Kampala
154. Varas Kassamli A. Viranii 369 18 131-137 2 Kibuga Block Kampala
155. Badrudin Hassam Kala 391 23 253 10 At Nakulabye Kampala

156. Rehemtulla Mohamed Jamani 587 23 18B Clement Hill Road Kampala
157. Registered Trustees of the Kam. 491 25 17 Mutekanga Road Kamuli
158. Trustees of Kamuli Indian
Education
491 24 15 Mutekanga Sanitary Lane between
17 & 15
Kamuli
159. Mdhavji Girdhar 249 2 8 Kiderai Cotton Market Kamuli
160. Raghavji Karsanji Kanani 521 14 Kamuli Ginnery
Residential S.
Kamuli
161. Raghavji Karsanji Kanani 615 2 Kamuli Ginnery Plot Kamuli
162. Anwarali Rejandin 111 14 11 Mutekanga Kamuli
163. Trustees of Kamuli Indian
Education
625 20 23 Mutekanga Kamuli
164. Meranji Govindji T. 106 7 7 Mutekanga Kamuli
165. Samji Kachra 88 24 1 Temple E. Road Kamuli
166. Ali Nazmudin Abdul 107 13 4 Kitimbo Road Kamuli
167. Reg. Trustees of Kamuli I.E.SO 491 25 17 Mutekanga Road Kamuli
168. Virbhai Rahemtulla 73 20 1 Babubhai Kamuli
169. Parbat Harbham Limited 383 25 Land at Kasogi 5 acres Kasogi
170. Parbat Harbham Limited 88 18 Land at Kasogi 1 acre Kasogi
171. Harjibhai Kalyanki Raivadera 212 13 6 Mpulira Cotton Market Kigulu
172. The Cotton & Produce Limited 239 22 20 Mpulira Cotton Market Kigulu
173. British Metal Corporation Ltd. 384 9 2.97 acres at Kikagati Kikagati
174. British Metal Corporation Ltd. 181 14 12.85 acres at Kikagati Kikagati
175. A.F. Karbani 1 Butoozana Kisoro
176. Trustees Kitgum Indian Educ. S. 124 Uhuru Drive/Bazzar Kitgum
177. Trustees Kitgum Indian Educ. S. 245 25 126 Uhuru Drive/Bazzar Kitgum
178. Cotton Merchants Ltd. 428 25 At Agalitum Kumi
179. Buganda Planters Limited 522 5 Land at Mubeya Kyaggwe
180. Buganda Planters Limited 553 18 9 Land at Mubeya Kyaggwe
181. Laxmidas Shatilal Raja 440 10 19 D Kyere T/C
182. Roshankanu w/o Gulamhusein BH 440 11 19 D Kyere T/C
183. Rahematbai Mitha 506 10 13 Soroti Road Lira
184. Gerald Havey Crane 493 10 Bugonzi Coffee Factory Masaka
185. Janmohamed Yusuf 553 25 64 At Kasasa Masaka
186. Villamaria Coffee Buying Co. 86 1 24 Edward Avenue Masaka
187. Ghulamali Uppal 52 Edward Avenue Masaka
188. Somani J. A. Amirali 12 Elgin Road Masaka
189. 483 2 11 Hobert Avenue Masaka
190. 1042 4 58/60 Hobert Street Masaka
191. Husseinali Nurmohamed Jiwa 13 Victoria Road Masaka
192. Uganda Credit Savings Bank 509 4 12 Birch Avenue Masaka
193. H. Hirji & Popat Karsan 636 21 Petrol Filling Station Masindi
194. Sherali Kassam 426 24 48 Ntanda Road Mawokota
195. Trust of Khoja Shia Ithnasheri 313 15 4 Bwana Michele Lane Mbale
196. Rajendra Visram Gohil 35 Cathedral/Ormsby Mbale
197. African Textile Mill Ltd. 10 Nabigyo Lane Mbale
198. Trustees of Lohana Community 503 24 6 Naboa Road Mbale
199. 16 Nkokonjeru Court Mbale
200. Mrs. Dipak J. Patel 110 9 1 Nkokonjeru Terrace Mbale
201. Haji Mitha & Company Limited 306 2 7 Railway Sidings Mbale
202. Hajji Mitha & Company Limited 43 19 Elgon Road Mbale
203. National Bank of India Limited 326 20 44/46 High Street Mbarara
204. The Ankole Hotel 176 18 9 Kabale Road Mbarara
205. Devshanker Rugnath Thanki 211 9 12 B Mbulamuti Mbulamuti
206. Kantilal Ranchoddas Ganatra 31 9 Land in Busiro
69.25 acres
Mpigi

207. 67 4 Land in Busiro
70.75 acres
Mpigi
208. Uganda Land Commission 58 1 Land in Busiro
104 acres
Mpigi
209. Makerere College Council 71 19 Land in Busiro
30.14 acres
Mpigi
210. Lawrence Mascarenha, Goan 299 25 8 M Namaliga Mpigi
211. Villabhdas Kalidas 210 23 50 B Namaliga Mpigi
212. M. L. Vadera Muguluka Jaggery &
Flour Mill
Muguluka
213. Registered Trustees of Namasagali 401 11 Namasagali Indian Public School Namasagali
214. Bukedi Ginners Limited 401 1 4 Namunsi Cotton Market Namunsi
215. Nanjibhai Prabhudas and
Company
381 15 32 Namunsi Cotton Market Namunsi
216. Dayalal Kheraji Tanna 24 B Namwendwa Namwendwa
217. Kamrudin Jaffer 475 15 3 C Otuboi
218. 5 Gogonyo Road Pallisa
219. Lohana Community 30 School Road Soroti
220. Registered Trustees of the School 145 11 13-31 School Road Land on easterly side Soroti
221. Vithaldas Harridas & Co. (1947) 87 19 1 acre at Kalaki Soroti
222. United Cotton Merchant Ltd. 477 17 Labour Lines Soroti
223. Usuku Ginneries Ltd. 474 19 Toroma Ginnery Soroti
224. Usuku Ginneries Ltd. 483 25 Toroma Ginnery Soroti
225. Usuku Ginneries Ltd. 493 9 Site at Toroma Soroti
226. Usuku Ginneries Ltd. 364 5 5.00 acres known as
Magoro
Soroti
227. Usuku Ginneries Ltd. 364 7 5.00 acres known as
Katakwi
Soroti
228. Gangaben Ishwerbhai Patel 519 2 4 1 Tira Soroti (Bukedi)

229. United Cotton Merchants Ltd. 126 9 Amuria Residential Site Teso
230. United Cotton Merchants Ltd. 5 17 2 acres Amuria Teso
231. Chauhan Jayantilala Dharmshi 651 10 8 Bazaar Street Tororo
232. D. Mohanlal and Bros. Ltd. 401 3 8 Namukunyu Cotton
Market
233.
234. Usuku Ginneries Limited 521 13 Land at Katakwi
235. The Gulu Cotton Company Ltd. 509 14 At Bukamba in Kigulu
236. The Gulu Cotton Company Ltd. 511 18 At Bukamba in Kigulu
237. Walli Mirza Khan FRV70 7 Land at Bujuta
238. Raghavji Karsanji Kanani 620 1 Ginnery Site at
Bugabula
239. Raghavji Karsanji Kanani 529 25 2 acres at Kamuli
Bugabula
240. Gulamhusein Mohamed 378 22 5 A Kikubi
241.
242. Pitamber Motihbhai & Bros. Ltd. 206 15 At Bulyowa
243. The Busoga Ginners Ltd. 86 6 Residential Plot at
Bukova
244. Jeshanga Kheraj Kotecha 240 7 5 Kidera Cotton Market
245. Patrick Geoffrey Corbett FRV77 15 86.61 acres known as
Watuba
246. Himatlal Amulakn Meha 370 24 229 12 At Kampala
247. Reg. Trustees of the Lohan Com 503 24 5 & 6
248. Pamba Limited 400 22 Mpulira Cotton Market
249. Nanjibhai Prabhudsa & Co. Ltd. 360 12 14 Mpulira Estate
250. T. Madhavji & G. Rugnath 90 6 2 B Balawoli
251. Girdhar Madhvji 99 6 13 A Balawoli

252. Jivanlal Vithaldas & Co. Ltd. 397 2 2 Nawasaso Nawasaso Cotton
Market
253. Kantilal Ranchhoddas Ganatra FRV31 9 69.25 acres and known
as Kitale
254. Reg. Trustees of Busolwe I. E. S. 373 22 2.754 acres at Busolwe
255. Usuku Ginneries Limited 521 12 Land at Magoro Ginnery
256. Dullabhji Gordhandas Tanna 134 6 10 B Balawoli
257. Kyere Cotton Company Limited 15 10 1 acre at Serere
258. Dalibagh Singh Brothers (U) Ltd. 753 6 85 & 86 At Busimbo,
Kyadondo
259. East African Gen. Insurance Co.
Ltd.
Shares in Eagen Co.
260. Shirinkhanu H. Gulamhusein 99 9 16 D Majanji Road Bus



Pravin Mehta


Deepam Novelties Inc


5174 Red Brush Dr.


Mississauga. Ontario.


Canada.L4Z 3Z8.


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kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Why the Syrian refugee crisis has eluded our leaders’ grasp

Evan Solomon on the refugee crisis, and a Ugandan family who entered his own life 43 years ago


“We left at a bad time, lots of killing and kidnapping,” Shamshudin Esmail tells me with a break in his gentle voice. “We went through four army checkpoints, were searched and interrogated and had to bribe our way through.” He’d already arranged to get his wife and his four-month-old son, Mustafa, out to Europe, where he met them. “We left everything behind.”

There is a long pause. In that silence, I can hear the thousands of details he is leaving out. The waiting. The fear. The mundane urgencies of travelling with a baby, where every second is exhausted with basic tasks such as changing a diaper or getting food. I try to imagine what he’s seeing in his mind and I can’t. Refugeeland can’t be mapped so easily. And it is like its own land. What the world once imagined as a temporary state for displaced persons has somehow become a quasi-state unto itself. Camps. Hot spots. Pick your word. They are not going away.

With the Syrian refugee crisis engulfing the federal election campaign, I reconnected with the first refugees I’d ever met, to see it through their eyes. Shamshidun—he goes by Sam—arrived in Canada in 1972. That’s when our lives interconnected. Like many Canadians, my parents had heard that the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin had ordered the expulsion of people of South Asian origin. More than 80,000, many Ismailis like Sam, were forced to flee. My parents responded instinctively. “How could we not see the parallels to the ’30s in Europe?” my mother recalls.

At the time, Canada didn’t even have a diplomatic office in Uganda, but Pierre Trudeau sent a team to Kampala to help. Between September and early November, the Canadian mission screened, selected and airlifted 6,000 people out to Canada. It was the biggest resettlement of non-Europeans—read non-whites—in our history until then. Next to the bureaucratic complexities we hear about regarding Syrian refugees, the process was almost implausibly simple.

“The Red Cross called to say that there was a young family who had just entered Canada,” my mother recalls. “They were staying at the Strathcona Hotel and could we pick them up?” That’s all it took. “Our first stop was a Loblaws, where we bought baby food for Mustafa,” Sam remembers. They stayed with us for more than two months. I was only four then and bunked with my brother while the Esmails stayed in my room. My two-year-old sister’s crib was given to Mustafa.

Over the years, we followed the Esmails’ journey. They had a daughter, Nadua, and moved to Calgary in 1976. It was a hard time. “My wife cried a lot,” Sam says, “but slowly, slowly we adjust.”

It wasn’t an easy life. “We had so little money,” Mustafa told me. He is now a dentist with a family of three, still living in Calgary. His sister is a doctor living in the U.S. “I was called ‘Paki’ a lot and told to go home. Now it is so different here, so multicultural.” Calgary’s mayor, Naheed Nenshi, is Ismaili, and Mustafa often saw him at the mosque.

Both Sam and Mustafa have been struck deeply by the Syrian refugee crisis. And by the tepid response. “Canada should be taking the lead,” Mustafa says. “We talk about multiculturalism, but we have to be leaders on how to make it work.” Mustafa understands concerns about security post-9/11, but to him, it misses the point. “People leaving Syria are victims, they are the ones with young families who want a better life.”

http://www.macleans.ca/news/world/why-t ... ers-grasp/
kmaherali
Posts: 25105
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

A Brief History of Khojas in Dar es Salaam By I.I.Dewji

http://khojawiki.org/Dar_es_Salaam#A_Br ... _I.I.Dewji


I wish to acknowledge the generous helpings I have taken from the book "The Emerging Metropolis: A history of Dar es Salaam, circa 1862-2000 by James R. Brennan & Andrew Burton, published by my good friend, Walter Bugoya of Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd. of Dar es Salaam-Any additions or deletions are of course, my responsibility and stand to be corrected)

In 1862, when Sultan Majid of Zanzibar first imagined the city he called “Harbour of Peace” (Dar es Salaam), he could not have even guessed how prophetic his words would be. This world-class Tanzanian city has had an enviable 160 year history of multiculturalism and peaceful racial co-existence, well before such concepts became popular in the West. And the Khojas have been through it all, thriving significantly despite three disastrous economic setbacks.

In the first half of the 1800’s, the small fishing village of Mzizima came to be a convenient commercial meeting point between three migrants peoples; Khoja merchants, who by then had been trading along the East African coast for a few hundred years, the Wazaramo, an inland Bantu tribe who had made their way to the coast, 200 miles from their home in the Uluguru mountains near Morogoro and the “Shomvi,” a Swahili/Shirazi people, who originated from Barawa, Somalia. A study of the Arab and German records by Professor Walter Thaddues Brown confirmed that by 1866, there were 40 Khojas in Mzizima, a relatively small number compared to Zanzibar (over 2,000) or even Bagamoyo with 131 individuals.(1)

The local economy was farming, harvesting coconuts, fishing, hunting, and crafts-making such as embroidery, wood-carving, metal and leather work, which were traded with Khoja “dukawallas” for cloth, building materials, beads etc. In 1866, a French visitor wrote this: “Situated on the shore of its harbour, like an Arab woman in rags in the ruined home of her former husband, Dari Salama appears to mourn its isolation and poverty”.(2) Unlike Bagamoyo with its interior caravans, this unhygienic village was hardly a place to build a home,let alone a fortune, but these hardy shopkeepers, who had been forced to leave Kutch and Kathiawar due to the persistent famines during British rule, managed not only to survive but also to save.

“The trajectory of nineteenth century developments also led to increased indebtedness and commercial marginalization of Shomvi and other Shirazi ‘patricians’ to Indian creditors, as well as their loss of effective sovereignty to Arab political power centred in Zanzibar. The sudden projection of political power by the Sultan of Zanzibar, in part to circumvent the commercial power of Indian traders and creditors centered in Bagamoyo, marks the beginning of Dar es Salaam’s history”(3)

In 1865 or 1866, the Sultan began building the port of Dar es Salaam but within a short 5 years, after his death in 1870, the town was back into serious decline. In 1873, the Indian traders were forced to relocate to nearby villages to trade with the Zaramo, who had boycotted the town; large houses fell in value from US$500 in 1871 to US$200 by 1873.(4) Worse was to follow—an outbreak of smallpox in 1882 killed perhaps three- quarters of the town’s inhabitants; and in late 1884 a drought and famine took the lives of hundreds of local Zaramo, and brought increased slave trading, inter-village kidnapping, and the pawning of children for food.(5)
For the Khojas families, there was much commercial loss and many moved back to Zanzibar or went on to Bagamoyo.

However, in 1885, when German colonial ambitions arrived (by way of “gunboat diplomacy and in the form of the German East African Company), things started to improve for the remaining traders. And after 1st January 1891, when Dar es Salaam became the new capital of German East Africa, government money poured in -the Indians investors were not enticed from Bagamoyo or Zanzibar; both because Bagamoyo remained a more vibrant commercial centre and the German administrators viewed the British-Indians with some suspicion.

“It is no secret that much of the recent troubles and difficulties of the German Company in East Africa arose from the unwisdom of its employees in endeavoring to rudely and suddenly oust the Indians from their commercial supremacy, and in thereby making Indian sentiment opposed to the extension of German rule.”(6)

When the Central Line was began in 1905, Dar es Salaam took off with the addition of significant infrastructural development.Two grand German churches were built-the Lutheran Church, begun in 1898 in a Bavarian Alpine style and the Catholic St. Joseph’s Cathedral, completed in 1902, built in a Gothic style. The State House and the equally imposing European hospital were sited facing the Indian Ocean. Along Azania Front, adjacent to the harbour, lay the government’s main office buildings, all built in a simple classical style.(7)

The Lutheran Church(built 1898)

St.Josephs Catholic Church (built 1902)

A period description of the (Indian) bazaar area “To the north of Marktstrasse and south of both Sultanstrasse (now roughly Bibi Titi Mohammad Road and Libya Street) and Ringstrasse (Jamhuri Street) lay an overwhelmingly African neighborhood of makuti huts, with a handful of Indian residents inhabiting stone buildings next to the town market (roughly at Indira Ghandi between Mosque Street and Morogoro Road).” (8) The Maji Maji Rebellion lead to the importation of a large portion of “Askari Schutztruppe”, most of whom were either Sudanese mercenaries or so-called ‘Zulu’ (i.e., Shangaan) mercenaries hired in Mozambique.

Askari Monument-(After their victory, the British replaced the statute of the German Governor, Hermann von Wissmann) dar-archive-LQ. The Haji Brothers Store is visible in the background.

This increased business for the traders and enhanced the tolerant lifestyle of the colonized inhabitants of Dar es Salaam. The latter-day Mayor, Abbas Sykes, a class-mate to those who studied at the Agakhan Boys Secondary (later called Tambaza) School, was one such descendant of the Zulu migrants!

A street scene after the damage from the Imperial War. (Bundesarchiv-Bild-105-DOA3077)

Old Post Office familiar to many Khoja residents for the daily long walk to collect mail!

Acacia Avenue,circa 1920's.

The German suspicions of the Indians even extended to initially curtailing their educational aspirations.

‘The Indians, who by their high intelligence and endeavor get the most out of education, without being useful to the Government will be held back and segregated.’ (8A)

It remains a mystery, worthy of further research, why, even though the Bombay Khojas were well advanced in education(8B), there were no Khoja schools at this time; to fill the gap, the well-known philanthropist, Sewa Haji Paroo donated the building for a multiracial school in Bagamoyo in 1890.(9)

Whilst other Khoja donors did the same for Zanzibar:

“Tharia Topan was one of the first Indian leaders to establish an ‘Indian School’ in Zanzibar, where South Asian Hindus and Muslim were educated in their own languages"(9A)

The school building in Bagamoyo donated and run by Sewa Haji Paroo.

However, “A government school was established in 1895, and by 1897 was attended regularly by some forty students ranging in age from 7 to 35; additionally some 39 Indian students took advanced courses in Gujerati at this school.” (10) Around 1907, a number of German companies relocated their businesses from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam, including the Deutsch Ost Afrikanische Bank, affording opportunity for the Khoja traders to become agents and suppliers to these companies. Kassum Sunderji Samji worked for one of these companies and remained a fluent German speaker till his death!(11)

"In the late 1890s, a Goan skilled builder could earn between 2.5-3 rupees per day, while a Hindu and Muslim Indian doing the same work would earn between 2-2.5 rupees per day".(12)

The first Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Mosque in Dar-es-Salaam, built in 1904.

“The German government in particular had a conflicting relationship with the Indian community, which grew in size from 100 in 1891, to 900 in 1900, and leaped to 2,600 by 1913. On the one hand it was reliant upon Indian capital for key urban investments—including Sewa Haji’s gift of 12,400 rupees to build a school and hospital. Yet the state was also pressured by European settlers, businessmen, and some of its own officials—who criticized Indians on grounds of unfair trading and unhygienic practices—to restrict Indian immigration and commercial penetration.” (13). The Khojas, it seems, had to compete with one hand tied to their backs!

In 1913, the Germans bought Indian and Arab lands in Upanga for European development and Schöller’s shamba to create a planned African neighborhood of Kariakoo and created an adjacent “cordon sanitaire” (now Mnazi Mmoja) that would separate it from the rest of the town. It is an irony of history that this racist buffer-land, Mnazi Moja and it’s famous Arnuatoglu Hall (named after its donor of Greek-Turkish origin) were to play such an important role in the rise of Julius Nyerere as the leader of the independence movement.

Julius Nyerere after his election as Leader of TANU party.

The Imperial War of 1914-1918 was the second major setback for the Khojas (and other Indians). Defying the Congo Act, which specifically stated that the European powers were not to extend their wars into central Africa, the British opened hostilities in Tanganyika. White settlers and up country traders streamed into Dares salaam for safety, creating food and housing shortages, whilst poorer Africans were forced return to farms to survive. The biggest hit to business was the confiscation of Indian goods and transportation by the German authorities “for the war effort”, in exchange for worthless German paper currency and colonial IOUs.(14)


After the British victors entered Tanganyika in 1916, they engineered a collapse of the German rupee (by circulating forged rupees) leading to the widespread trade disruption. Then on January 1st 1922, the German and Indian Rupee (which was also used extensively in East Africa) were completely demonetized, impoverishing all those who held those currencies. The Kenyan currency (the E.A Shilling) was made the only legal tender.(15). British banks and companies were given credit facilities to acquire the bankrupt Khoja assets, whilst the German government would only honour their obligations in Germany (so returning Germans settlers got compensated-Impoverished Indians could not!). As was the usual pattern throughout the British Empire, Indians were victimized by both sides of a conflict.


The wartime native African exodus of Dar es Salaam allowed the British to attempt to set-up the structure for a racist society-by creating separate zones of residence i.e European (e.g., Oyster Bay) and African (e.g., Kariakoo and Ilala) areas and the city centre, (called Uhindini) where the Khojas and other Indians were required to live. This congested bazaar area provided both residential and commercial space for Dar es Salaam’s fastest growing community(rising from 2,600 in the closing years of German rule to almost 9,000 in 1937).(16)

However, in between the 1920s and 30’s, the growing prosperity of the Indian community resulted in the transformation of this area of two- and three-storey stone buildings, and numerous makeshift single-storey structures doubling as both home and duka into stylized buildings incorporating a diverse array of architectural influences from classical to Indian. The communities still stayed close to their religious buildings—notably Khoja Ismailis in the vicinity of their Jamaat Khana on Mosque Street, the Khoja Itnasheries on India Street and Hindus around Kisutu Street— although they were more generally mixed.(17)

The Magnificant Ismaili Jamatkhana, Uhindini (Gham) built in 1939

Jamatkhana Street Scene

The British also cleared the racially mixed housing from Mnazi Moja in 1930s. But although Kariakoo was the principal African residential area and technically off limits for Indian housing, officials turned a blind eye to poorer Indians moving in.

On the other side of town, Acacia Avenue despite being the main European shopping area, was controlled by Khoja and other Indian shopkeepers.(18) Haji Brothers, a prominent family business near the Askari Monument, started in the late 30’s, See Haji Ladha This zoning structure of Uzunguni, Uhindini and Uswahilini formed the principal residential locations for the town’s European, Indian and African communities and entrenched racial segregation until independence in 1961.

Like other Indians, Khojas also participated in local and international politics. About the launching of the Ismaili Khoja-owned Africa Sentinel in 1940, Kassum Sunderji Samji the leading Ismaili figure in Tanganyika explained that ‘the patriotic and pro-British sentiment of the Khoja community found no proper representation in the local Indian Press, and that the community wished for this to be rectified’. Africa Sentinel was succeeded by another Ismaili-owned Anglo-Gujarati paper, Young Africa, which remained in print into the 1950s, though few copies survive.(19)

The Second World War dramatically changed this gently-ordered colonial city. Colonial food rationing with the preferential treatment for Europeans aroused African anger that lead to country wide strike in 1947 and effectively started the “Winds of Change”, which was to end so drastically for the Khojas Ismailis.

"Urban conditions were very bad, in part because urban public expenditure, which had always been inadequate, was severely cut. This gave rise to increasing numbers of Indians renting accommodation from Africans in Kariakoo, the quarter nearest the ‘neutral zone’."(20)

Immediately after the war, the community grew prosperous from rising commodity prices and a burgeoning exports/imports economy brought on by the Korean conflict, resulting into substantial re-development of Uhindini, with an array of buildings incorporating many modern influences.

"...from a 1948 baseline of 72 units worth 4.8 million shillings, a peak was reached and sustained between 1953 and 1958 when 1004 units were constructed per annum worth 143.4 million shillings (22)

Throughout Dar es Salaam between 1949-51, nearly £1 million worth of new residential buildings were completed, £750,000 worth of commercial buildings and over £600,000 worth of industrial buildings. The following year the value of buildings under construction, or planned, was as high as £7 million.(23)

Jiwan Hirji Building,built in the 50's.

Upanga Ismaili Jamatkhana, built in December 1963

Notwithstanding the immigration controls imposed on Indian immigration by the British (ostensibly to protect Africans-but one has to contrast that to the massive post-war European immigration into Kenya to see the hypocrisy), the numbers of Indians rose from under nine thousand in 1940 to almost thirty thousand in 1957. This was partly fueled by renewed recruitment of Indian civil servants following the Second World War, but above all by increased birth rates among Indians already resident in Dar es Salaam.(24) Upanga to the north of Uhindini experienced rapid development of Indian housing from the early 1950s, with housing built through cooperative societies legislation, that had allowed the Chaggas and other African tribes to become wealthy by better marketing their produce.

While the British had envisioned a racially divided city, they were not able to enforce the rules due to lack of resources and Dar es Salaam neighborhoods grew more socially diverse than neighboring capitals such as Nairobi or Lusaka. The Khoja-donated old ‘native’ Sewa Haji Hospital was expanded into the modern Princess Margaret (after independence, Muhimbili) Hospital in 1956. (Why remember Khojas history, if they don’t wish to, themselves?)

In the 1960s, more self-help housing schemes, modeled on the government-run developments for Africans in Kinondoni and other area, vastly improved the lives of the Khojas under-class; this incredible thirty-odd year construction boom came to screeching halt with the Acquisition of Buildings Act 1971.

"By the late 1960s, this community-based housing cooperative scheme had resulted in an investment in Dar es Salaam of approximately US S35-41 million, and a further US S2.6 million in up-country towns.(25)

That this frenetic pace of investment growth was maintained until 1971 puts a lie to the racist propaganda by opportunist African leaders that Tanzanian “Asians” did not have confidence in an independent Africa. (25A)

This third financial catastrophe to hit Khojas was ostensibly introduced to advance Tanzania’s socialist goals by nationalization of “second homes”. This law confiscated, without compensation, nearly 3,000 buildings in Dar es Salaam between 1971-3, of which 96 percent belonged to Indians.(26)

"The final spate of acquisitions ended in 1973 by which time 2994 buildings had been acquired worth an estimated 500 million shillings; almost all had belonged to Asians." (27)

The law was cleverly crafted to specifically exclude African landlords by targeting multi-storey buildings, over a value that exempted the bungalow-type homes favoured by Africans in Uswahilini and across the country. (An survey of housing in Dar es salaam -10 years earlier-had found "over 12,000 houses were African-owned—with 18 percent of men and 47 percent of women owning one house or more."(28)

In breach of its avowed socialist objectives, the newer cooperative housing schemes for poorer Indians (but much coveted by the new African elites of the "para-statal sector" and their families and friends) were also fraudulently confiscated under the legal fiction that the co-op society was “one” single owner and owned “multiple” units, thus bringing it under the Act. "While formally exempted from nationalization, a large percentage of Ismaili cooperative housing was also acquired because tenant-purchasers had rented units to third parties" (29)

The thuggish manner in which the process of seizure was implemented, made protests in the one-party Tanzania fraught with personal danger

"Notice of acquisition appeared in the local press and was immediately followed by the arrival of the police who took possession of the building and attached assets. Basically, individuals were evicted — amidst the scarcely concealed glee of Africans — sometimes without being able to remove personal possessions. In Dar es Salaam approximately 1578 buildings were acquired - fewer than 250 of which were eventually returned — affecting 5300 private tenants (30)

"In the initial surge of acquisition not only privately owned buildings but also those belonging to communal associations - mosques, guest houses and community halls — were also acquired. While the latter were eventually returned, the entire process of appropriation caused a major panic in the Indian population. At the same time, houses belonging to and occupied by individual families were also nationalized and then rented back to their former owners and sitting tenants." (31)

And so most of the predominant Khoja Ismailis (who, as the principal property owners, lost most of their wealth) as well as many other Indians made a mass exodus out of Dar es Salaam (and Tanzania) mostly with nothing more than their families living overseas.

During the hard days of economic wilderness that followed, many up-country Khojas moved into Dar es Salaam and held on to a precarious living. A change of government and liberalization of trade and economic policies in the 1990’s brought renewed opportunities and once again, they have rebuilt their lives and their wealth-almost phoenix-like.(see story of Mohammed Gulam Dewji.

For almost 150 years, Khojas have enjoyed a peaceful and mostly prosperous existence in this “Abode of Peace” (another translation of “Dar es salaam”) and this puts lie to the another pugnacious argument-that Africa is unsafe for minorities.

Sultan Majid of Zanzibar would have been pleased with the outcome of his dream!.

NOTES

(1). Walter Thaddeus Brown "A Pre-colonial history of Bagamoyo” (Phd. thesis for the University of Michigan-1970)-He stayed some months in Bagamoyo and Zanzibar, digging up old German and Zanzibari records.

(2). Père LeRoy, 17 April 1886,2K1.1b7, "Archives Générales Spiritains, Chevilly-la-Rue, France". We are indebted to Steven Fabian for his notes on this source and to Gerard Vieira and Vincent O’Toole at the Archives Générales Spiritains.

(3). John Gray, ‘Dar es Salaam under the Sultans of Zanzibar’, Tanganyika Notes & Records (hereafter TNR)33 (1952)(pp 10-17)

(4). Jonathon Glassman, Feasts and Riot: Revelry, Rebellion, and Popular Consciousness on the Swahili Coast,1856-1888 (Portsmouth,1995),(pp.183)

(5). Gray, op cit (pp 10-17)

(6). H. H. Johnston, F.R.G.S. Her Majesty's Consul, Mozambique-"The Asiatic Colonisation of East Africa"- JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF ARTS [February 1st 1889)- pp 160.

(7). W. T. Casson, ‘Architectural notes on Dar es Salaam’, TNR 71 (1970), (pp.183-184)

(8). A. Seidel-"Dar-es-Salaam:Die Hauptstadt Deutsche-Ostafrikas" (Berlin,1898),(pp.29-30.)

(8A) Dar es Salaam report cited in G. Hornsby, German Educational Achievement in East Africa’, in Tanganyika Notes and Records 1964, 86.

(8B) There was an English school run by Khojas in Bombay in 1866 (see Howard, Edward Irving - Speech Notes Agakhan Case 1866 Lawyer, Bombay Oriental Press -1866 (pp 71))

(9). Freundeskreis Bagamoyo E. V. “The Story of Bagamoyo” (http://www.bagamoyo.com)

(9A). Gilsbert Oonk :South Asians in East Africa (1880-1920) with a Particular Focus on Zanzibar(pp-29)

(10). James R. Brennan & Andrew Burton- "The Emerging Metropolis:A history of Dar es Salaam, circa 1862-2000"

(11). Al Nur Kassum -"Africa’s Winds of Change - Memoirs of an International Tanzanian" (pg.2)

(12). abid- Seidel, Hauptstadt,(pp.29-30).

(13). abid - Brennan & Barton (pp)

(14). John E. Sandrock- "A Monetary History Of German East Africa" (pg 25) http://www.thecurrencycollector.com/pdf ... AFRICA.pdf The reverse even carried the phrase “One hundred percent of the face value of this banknote is deposited with the Imperial German East African government”, which was also repeated in Swahili!

(15). The Metallica Currency Ordinance (19220 establishes the East African shilling as only legal tender in Tanganyika Territory.

(16). abid- Brennan & Barton (pp)

(17). Sutton, ‘Dar es Salaam’ (BIEA)-‘Uhindini Building Survey,2004’ (data stored in BIEI Library) (pp.12)

(18). See narrative page of Moloo at www.khojawiki.org

(19) Letter to A.C.S., 19 June 1940, TNA 28798 (f.2). quoted in "POLITICS AND BUSINESS IN THE INDIAN NEWSPAPERS OF COLONIAL TANGANYIKA-James R. Brennan

(20) John R. Campbell-"Culture, Social Organisation and Asian Identity: Difference in Urban East Africa"- Identity and Affect: Experiences of Identity in a Globalising World-Pluto Press (1999) (pg 179)

(22) Mwita, D. M. 1978. ‘Urban Landlordism and the Acquisition of Buildings Act’. Unpublished LLM thesis, University of Dar es Salaam. (appendix viii, p. 291)

(23). By the late 1960s the Jubilee Trust had invested up to $40 million in property in Dar es Salaam. John Campbell,‘Culture,Social organization and Asian identity:Difference in urban East Africa’, in J.Campbell and A.R.Rew (eds),Identity and Effect(London, 1999). (pg 188)

(24). J.F.R. Hill & J.P. Moffett, Tanganyika:A review of its resources and their development (DaresSalaam,1955),(p.805)

(25) Shirin Remtulla Walji-"Ismailis on Mainland Tanzania, 1850-1948" (1974) pg 214-15)

(25A) A lasting monument to the presence of Khojas (and other Indians) in Dar es salaam is the plethora of residential and business buildings constructed by them over the years. A remarkable book by Sarak Markes “Street Level, a collection of drawings and creative writing inspired by Dar es Salaam” provides an insight into the creative aspirations of this minority community and its astounding confidence in their adopted home. See https://darsketches.wordpress.com

(26). Richa Nagar, ‘The South Asian diaspora in Tanzania: a history retold’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 16 (1996), p. 70

(27) abid-Mwita (pg28)

(28). J.A.K. Leslie, A Survey of Dar es Salaam (London,1963), ‘Survey appendices’

(29) abid- Mwita (pg214-16).

(30) abid: (pg 301).

(31) abid-Campbell (pg 189)

A Photo Gallery Of Dar es Salaam






Street Scene







The Lutheran Church(built by Germans in 1898 and still beautiful!







The wonderfully colorful buildings of Uhindini, Dar es salaam







Daya Punja Library, where many a surreptitious glances were exchanged!







Avalon Cinema,built by Hassanali Kassum Sunderji ("Chocolate"), who also built Amana Cinema in Illala for his African clients!!







Askari Monument with Haji Bros Store in the background.







Another angle of the Askari Roundabout, with a famous cafe(?) and Shelina Studio.







The elegant Aga Khan Library, built 1934.







Cosy Cafe, c1900-1912 Originally started as a bakery by a German named August Treuheit, Cosy Cafe saw its limelight as a popular bistro-café, operated by the Bhaloo family for many decades through the 40-70's. It was one of the haunts of Julius Nyerere and other pre-Independence political activists but its greatest local fame was as a rendezvous for many a love affair amongst young Khojas. (With the kind permission of Sarah Markes, Artist https://darsketches.wordpress.com)







Bombay style architecture-India was so close and yet so far!







This peaceful harbour was the reason why Sultan Majid chose to build Dar Es salaam!







A wonderful image of the entrance to the harbour.







The local beach lay on the path of the daily morning walk for the Khojas!







Many a Khoja kid have swam or fished of this jetty!




Bandhani-the dignity shawl of a khoja lady.
Bead Bais - those extraordinary khoja women of east africa.
The Intrepid Dukawalla.
Gujarat Famines & Khoja Migrations.
That Unique Khoja Naming Custom.
Merchant Princes.


Essays on Early Khoja Settlements


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kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

The migrant crisis facing Europe and the tragic death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, whose body was washed ashore in Turkey, recalls the exodus from Uganda in 1972.

Ugandan dictator Idi Amin embarked upon a campaign of racial cleansing, expelling people of Asian descent, including third-generation Uganda Asians whose ancestors had lived there for more than 100 years. They were given 90 days to leave, leaving businesses, homes and vehicles. They had been stripped of their citizenship and possessions, hounded out of their homes and their businesses. Bank accounts were frozen, making them not only stateless but also bankrupt. Even as they trooped to the Entebbe International Airport, Amin’s soldiers robbed them along the way.

Approximately, 80,000 Asians became stateless and homeless, sparking the largest Asian exodus in African history and creating an international crisis. The Ugandan exodus was not as tragic and as staggering in numbers, but the migrant catastrophe currently confronting Europe brings back similar painful memories of statelessness, alienation and dislocation.

Syrian and other migrants have been shuttled from one country to another; helpless and desperate women and children virtually begging for a new home. They have been fleeing war, political instability and poverty, seeking better lives. They have risked their lives by cramping in truck containers and unstable boats, only to be told by governments who could not decide what to do with them that they are not welcome.

More...

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/world/o ... n-refugees
kmaherali
Posts: 25105
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

2 Ismailis among the Muslims who won the 2015 Canadian Federal Elections.

Muslims who won in the Canadian election
http://muslimlink.ca/news/national/musl ... l-election

Yasmin Ratansi, MP for Don Valley East

Interesting Facts: Ratansi represented the riding of Don Valley East as a Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2011. As Deputy Whip of the Liberal Caucus, she exhibited extensive leadership skills among her fellow MPs and proved herself as an excellent negotiator. Source: Ratansi’s Website and Facebook

Arif Virani, MP for Parkdale–High Park

Interesting Facts: Virani has an Honours B.A. in History and Political Science from McGill University, and completed his LL.B at the University of Toronto. He has worked as an Analyst with the Canadian Human Rights Commission in Ottawa; an Investigator at la Commission des droits de la personne et droits de la jeunesse in Montreal; and as an Assistant Trial Attorney prosecuting genocide at the United Nation’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Source: Virani’s Website and Facebook
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

What’s New About Muslim Ismaili Transnationalism? Comparing Business Practices in British East Africa, Colonial Mozambique and Contemporary Angola
by ismailimail


Authors: Susana Salvaterra Trovão and Filomena Batoréu
Source: African and Asian Studies, Volume 12, Issue 3, pages 215 – 244 Publication Year : 2013

Abstract

The way in which the history of colonialism might link up with the formation of postcolonial migrant identities remains insufficiently examined.

Through a comparison between transnational business practices of Khoja Ismaili Muslim settled in the British and Portuguese colonial territories of East Africa and in contemporary Angola, the present paper aims to discuss the impact of colonial experiences in the configuration of postcolonial business cultures.

Articulating several guiding empirical questions, we will attempt to show that the continuing centrality of the nation-states in which Ismaili transnational economic activities are embedded, the notion of a disadvantageous network closure, concomitant with the importance of face-to-face contacts, the mutual trust and understanding sustained through personal relations, and the tendency for national loyalty to prevail over religious belonging (whenever any potential conflict between the two exists) constitute crucial dimensions of an accumulated colonial knowledge which is significant in the analysis of the Ismaili competitive advantage in postcolonial Africa. This argument will be developed on the basis of a multi-sited ethnographic research.

The U.K. and Portugal emerged as a strategic passage for our encounters with East African Ismailis from former British and Portuguese colonial territories. The current Angolan context, absent from the available literature, was selected as a postcolonial term of comparison.

Source:
* www.researchgate.net/publication
* www.fcsh.unl.pt/faculdade/docentes/sst


ismailimail | November 4, 2015 at 9:00 am | Categories: Mozambique, Portugal, UK | URL: http://wp.me/p1Z38-yz8
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Post by kmaherali »

Calgary landlords preparing for refugee influx

Strategic Group CEO Riaz Mamdani says his company is willing to do what it takes to provide housing to Syrian Refugees coming to Canada. Mamdani was a child refugee from Uganda in the 1970s, and said he and his family now want to give back.

By:Brodie Thomas Metro Published on Tue Nov 17 2015

Calgary’s landlords are stepping forward to say they’re ready to accept Syrian refugees into their properties.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi mentioned that the city is meeting with some of the city's larger property owners during a phone in on CBC radio Wednesday afternoon.

When contacted, the mayor’s office declined to elaborate on any meetings at this time, as did Calgary Housing Company.

But Riaz Mamdani, the CEO of Calgary-based Strategic Group, confirmed he had spoken with the mayor’s office as well as federal officials and made a commitment to help.

He said his company – which owns rental properties across Canada – is prepared to open its properties to Syrian refugees with no limits imposed.

“If that means we’re not going to charge them for a period of time, that’s our commitment to the overall cause,” said Mamdani.

He said his company doesn’t have a budget in this undertaking.

“Our plan is to do what it takes,” he said. “Our plan is to assess the need. The greater the need, the greater the resources – and we’ll find the resources.”

Mamdani is himself a refugee. His parents fled Uganda in 1973 when he was just a small child, and they settled in Calgary. He went on to study pharmacy and law before finding his niche in real estate.

“My family are immigrants to Canada who came in a difficult time from a part of the world that was in chaos,” he said. “This is part of giving back to people 45 years later in a similar circumstance.”

Another Calgary company – Boardwalk Rental Communities – said it was already planning to address the cause. It is dedicating 350 of its rentals across Canada, including about 50 in Calgary, to Syrian refugees.

David McIlveen, Director of Community Development, said the company will be reducing rent by $150 at each of those properties for the first year.

“Its part of our DNA ,” said McIlveen. “Social responsibility is one of core values as a company.”

http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary/20 ... nflux.html
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Post by kmaherali »

MP Arif Virani shares his refugee story

Power and Politics

November 20, 2015

Liberal MP Arif Virani shares his story of coming to Canada as a refugee and discusses the recent backlash against Syrian refugees

VIDEO
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2679291420

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For one Liberal MP the refugee backlash cuts close to home: Tim Harper
As debate swirls over 25,000 Syrian refugees headed here, Parkdale-High Park chose a man who arrived under another refugee airlift

Vince Talotta / Toronto Star Order this photo

The type of intolerance faced by Liberal MP Arif Virani or others really comes from people who won the life lottery. They were born in this country — they have never been given 90 days to flee their home, they have never tried to escape terror, writes Tim Harper

OTTAWA—For rookie Liberal MP Arif Virani, his government’s ambitious plan to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees — and the backlash it has engendered in the wake of the Paris massacre — is personal.

The new MP for Parkdale-High Park can thank Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, for his life in this country, an experience that began at a Montreal YMCA as his family arrived in a strange, frigid land with only two suitcases.

Virani was only 10 months old when he was bundled up as the family fled the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin.

The Liberal government of the day accepted 7,000 Ismaili Muslim refugees, expelled from Amin’s Uganda, in a 90-day blitz that marked the first refugee effort of its kind from a non-European country.

From that room on Peel Street, Virani’s path took him to Toronto’s Flemingdon Park, then Willowdale, then McGill and the University of Toronto. It weaved its way through a parliamentary internship, then a post as counsel in the constitutional law branch of the Ontario government, now a member of Parliament in a tough race in which he wrested the seat from NDP incumbent Peggy Nash.

There was a backlash in 1972, as there is now, and it surfaced sporadically over the years. It happened again during the campaign, where a handful of voters told Virani they would never vote for a Muslim.

That stings as much today as it did 23 years ago when a guy in a North Bay bar called him a “Paki,’’ or 10 years earlier when the same label was affixed to his mother in a Toronto grocery store.

“You know, I’m a fairly level-headed guy, I like the sound of my own voice,’’ Virani said Thursday.

“I’m a litigator and I can talk and I can usually deal with issues and I’m well-versed in responding at the door.’’

He could handle himself when people objected to the Liberal position on trade, or CBC funding, or anti-terror legislation, but that ease melted away when he faced intolerance.

“Whether you are 3 or 43, when somebody volleys an intolerant, bigoted sentiment to you, it stupefies you for a moment. You want to say, ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’ But you can’t say that, because you always want to be respectful.

“I was tongue-tied. I would pause. I would say I’m sorry you felt that way, that’s not the type of Canada I believe in, have a nice day.

“It’s very demeaning and dehumanizing when you get attacked on something because of your skin colour or your religion or your place of origin.’’

So, he agonizes over the mosque-burning in Peterborough, the vandalism of a Kitchener temple, and the assault of a Muslim woman in his old Flemingdon Park stomping ground. The woman was picking up her son at Grenoble Public School, where Virani’s sister used to attend, when she was assaulted in what Toronto police called a hate crime.

Two Muslim women were accosted and verbally assaulted on a subway at Sherbourne Station on Wednesday. A Muslim woman in Ottawa found a threatening note in her mailbox.

Virani believes the Rob Ford regime at Toronto City Hall, then the injection of the niqab in the Stephen Harper campaign, emboldened those who had kept such thoughts to themselves, ripping the filter off those who silently harboured racist views.

“It gave people an issue to latch on to and something to go on the attack about,’’ he said.

But he takes heart in the response to the backlash. The Peterborough mosque raised more money than its goal after it was torched. There was a similar outpouring of revulsion over the Flemingdon Park assault.

That shows progress, he thinks, but adds: “To be blunt, there will always be an element in Canada that is resistant to change and . . . are somewhat intolerant. They fear the unknown.’’

The type of intolerance faced by Virani or others really comes from people who won the life lottery. They were born in this country — they have never been given 90 days to flee their home, they have never tried to escape terror, they have never lost loved ones in an internecine war, or been forced to endure brutal conditions in a refugee camp.

Yet, they want to turn their backs on those who have endured such despair.

Will it pass?

Virani didn’t mention the biggest reason for hope that it will. On election day in October, 24,623 Parkdale-High Park voters put an ‘X’ beside his name, choosing him to represent them in Ottawa.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015 ... arper.html

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What Happened to the Canada That Saved My Family From a Brutal Dictator?

When Idi Amin, the President of Uganda, followed up on his dream, and ordered the expulsion of all Ugandan Asians within 90 days, whether those Asians were Ugandan for one generation or multiple generations, the Asians were gripped with fear and absolute panic. They were required to say good-bye to the only country that most had known; to hand-over all their life long possessions and assets, and simply go!!! Where would they go -- how would they go -- who would help them -- and many such questions completely consumed them. These were traumatic times.

However, almost miraculously, Mike Molloy and a team of dedicated and empathetic Government officers and administrative staff descended from Canada. It was clear that they had instructions from the very top, to do whatever was necessary, to facilitate and process the migration of some 6,000 Ugandan Asians to Canada, within a matter of a few weeks.

My wife, Shamshad, and I were amongst the lucky ones to arrive in Canada in 1972.

Our entire experience in dealing with the Canadian Team in Uganda, and in receiving help, advice and guidance upon arriving in Canada was nothing short of amazing. There was an enormous amount of compassion and empathy, a high degree of sensitivity and understanding, and an unbelievable level of warmth and friendship. Within a matter of only a few weeks we were completely self-supporting. Our sense of belonging, and our love and respect for Canada came almost instantaneously.

It was not too long after that I completed my Law degree and got called to the Bar in British Columbia. Shamshad pursued a career in real estate sales and then became a full-time mom. Our success story is not very different from the stories of most of the other Ugandan Asians that arrived in Canada. The collective success of Ugandan Asians is in fact as much a success of Canada and Canadians, in doing everything that was necessary in an expedited way, to meet the needs of time, with an open heart, with compassion and with humanity.

Today, as I watch and read about Alan Kurdi's story (and can barely contain my emotions) and learn that millions of Syrians, subjected to the fear, panic, trauma and total helplessness, far worse than Ugandan Asians were ever exposed to, can only be processed to come to Canada at the rate of some 2,000 in five years, I wonder what happened to the Canada that brought me and some 6,000 out of the clutches of a brutal dictator within a matter of days, without subjecting them to a bureaucratic nightmare and years of waiting: WHERE is the Canada that processed and brought in some 60,000 boat people in less than 18 months: WHERE is the compassion and desire to make things happen expeditiously exhibited during the migrations of large numbers of refugees from Hungary and Kosovo.....????

As I think about this and reflect upon my daily interactions with everyone I come into contact with, I am convinced that most Canadians have not lost any bit of this compassion and humanity. I believe the failure to take urgent steps and expedite the arrival of Syrian refugees in reasonable numbers and within a reasonable time, might have a lot to do with the apathy, a lessened sense of compassion and empathy at the highest levels of Government Departments.

Humanity and humanitarianism ought never to be a (foreign) policy objective -- it must be an intrinsic VALUE that each of us possesses, one we want Canada to reflect, without reservation.

Editor's Note: The boys' aunt told The Canadian Press the boys' names are Alan, and not Aylan, and Galib, not Galip, as originally released by the Turkish government.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jalal-jaff ... 95602.html
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Post by kmaherali »

Vancouver Muslims want security focus on new Syrian refugees

Excerpt:

Even though the majority of B.C.’s Muslims are Sunnis, the province is also home to thousands of Shia and Ismaili Muslims.

Ismaili followers of the Aga Khan, many of whom came to Canada as refugees from Uganda in the 1970s, have put most of their recent efforts into supporting war-ravaged refugees within Syria or in nearby Middle Eastern countries.

The Aga Khan Foundation Canada has spent several years aiding roughly 150,000 Syrians who have been “internally displaced” by conflict — providing food, water, shelter, education and other forms of assistance, says Nadia Somani, of the Foundation.


The Syrian civil war has created more than four million refugees and asylum seekers, most of whom remain in Syria or in nearby Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey.

Arabian Gulf states for the most part have refused to accept refugees.

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2015/11/2 ... -refugees/#
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Post by kmaherali »

The model that works
Esam Sohail

The Ismaili community has shown remarkable ability to peacefully assimilate into the pluralistic ethos of the 21st century


When a big organisation sees most of its departments performing at sub-par levels and public relations hitting a nadir, some consultants opt for bringing in outside academics to look into “root causes,” while others in the management craft would search for smaller-scale imitable working models closer to home. Sometimes, such models are simply smaller, less heralded, and less conspicuous units within the organisations.

In the case of global Islam, a religious tradition followed in various forms by a billion and a half people across the six continents and seven seas, the repeated, heightened, and legitimate scrutiny in the aftermath of terror attacks across Western cities is only to be expected. Somewhere, somehow, the rot of militancy, extremism, and violence has concocted to become a toxic brew that has become the public face of Muslims in much of the world.

Instead of the endless search for ever new methods of apologia, futile academic exercises in the “true meaning” of this or that, or rehashing of dubious glories of a thousand years ago, perhaps thoughtful Muslims need check much closer in time and space for a model that works quite well here and now.

Though quite small in absolute numbers, the Ismaili Muslim community is spread out across all the continents, and in every country of its domicile has been nothing but a stellar example of temporal achievement, spiritual uplift, and breathtaking philanthropy. I would be shocked, if through all the cycles of terrorism, you can find the remotest involvement of one single Ismaili individual or institution.

Whether in Bangladesh or in the US, Ismaili Muslims (also colloquially referred to as “Aga Khanis” in South Asia) have expressed their devotion to spiritual purity through extensive charitable activities in the fields of education, health care, micro-lending, and similar endeavours that are quite different from the jihadi violence of many in the broader set of their coreligionists in the Middle East and Europe.

What gives?

Rather than endlessly talking about “root causes” and “true Islam,” the Ismailis, under the leadership of His Highness the Aga Khan (and his illustrious ancestors), have established a clear methodology of religious practice where scriptural texts are interpreted and applied in light of continuous reasoning and current-day realities.

Genuine acceptance of pluralism, deep respect for the temporal laws of their respective homelands, and an ingrained intolerance for extremist thinking is universal amongst this Muslim community whose adherents are, almost to the last man and woman, successful in commerce and the professions in the East and the West, despite their forced exodus from Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.

Go into any Ismaili mosque or review the community’s religious texts of interpretation, and you will find very little that can be even remotely construed as being incompatible with the idea of a modern, progressive, civilised order for humanity, irrespective of race, religion, and gender.

A tight-knit Muslim community has managed, over the vicissitudes of a millennium, to keep faith with the temporal and the divine simultaneously, while doing an incredible job at internally policing any wayward elements long before they become problems for humanity. It won’t be a particular stretch to say that of all the identifiable Muslim groups in the world, the Ismailis have shown the greatest propensity of peaceful assimilation not only into their respective homelands but also into the open, tolerant, and pluralistic ethos of the 21st century.

They are doing something right, decade after decade, generation after generation, country after country.

I am no theologian for sure. Yet, both common sense and business principles would suggest that the broader Muslim community make a serious and disciplined effort to learn and apply best practices from a living model within itself that has proven to be incredibly successful at thriving in the modern era.

In fact, a good management consultant would advise that such best practices, once documented, vetted, and scrutinised, should be primary candidates for scaling up across broad swathes of the so-called Ummah. Why keep on the never-ending circular cacophony of the rhetoric of “true meaning” and “root cause,” when a working model exists?

For those who dismiss this analogy as a profane blending of business and theology, I ask them: Do you recall what the Prophet of Islam did for a living? Yep, he was a businessman, as was his first wife!

http://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2015/ ... odel-works
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Post by kmaherali »

'Kind, caring' doctor receives the 2015 Spirit of St. Vincent Award

SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MI – Growing up in Tanzania, along Africa's eastern coast, Dr. Shiraz H. Shariff was always the kind of kid who liked to jump up and help others at school.

"It came naturally to me," said the Saginaw interventional cardiologist, taking a quick break between his rounds and meeting with patients at the Michigan CardioVascular Institute. "But we also had a country doctor in our little town, a kind man, who would give us quinine when malaria would give us high fevers and body aches.

"He was so compassionate, and his medicine made everything better. I wanted to do that, too."

The cardiology work Shariff has done since coming to Saginaw in 1983, showing the same kind of caring to his patients and their families, moved the St. Mary's of Michigan Foundation to name him its Spirit of St. Vincent Award recipient for 2015, said Foundation Executive Director Karen Stiffler.

More...
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index ... ariff.html

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Kais Khimji to assist with Harvard Model Congress Dubai and Harvard Model Congress Asia

Harvard Model Congress Dubai is the world's premier government simulation. For three days, students will take on the roles of US Representatives, US Senators, and UN representatives and tackle some of the world's most pressing issues. Through public speaking, negotiation, and compromise, delegates will challenge themselves to understand the nuances of politics and the intricacies of legislation. Delegates will work hand-in-hand with Harvard students to delve deeply into world issues and develop complex solutions.

Director of Programs - Kais Khimji

Kais is a junior living in Adams house, concentrating in Social Studies with a secondary in Government. His family is originally from East Africa, but emigrated to Canada in the 1970s; he was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kais works as a business development intern for do.com. In his spare time he enjoys playing pickup basketball, snowboarding, watching French films, and cheering on the Vancouver Canucks. This will be Kais' second year at HMC Dubai and he is stoked for the conference!
Who we are.

http://www.hmcdubai.org/executive-board/

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2015 Rising Stars Award Winners
http://lexpert.ca/rising-stars/award-wi ... &year=2015
Karima Kanani, Miller Thomson LLP

Karima Kanani leads the corporate/commercial practice in the firm’s Ontario Health Industry Group. She has a specialty practice in the health and social service sector, advising on corporate governance, mergers, infrastructure and other matters. She has served as lead corporate counsel to several Ontario hospitals engaging in alternate-financing infrastructure projects valued at up to $600 million; a hospital in high-level negotiations with a municipality for a contentious land acquisition and development; a new forensic mental health hospital on its creation by government and land, asset and funding acquisition; and a hospital hosting a shared client-information management system with contracts involving two Ontario ministries and some 100 childservice organizations. She volunteers with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research Ethics Board and the National Aga Khan Quality of Life of the Elderly project.
http://lexpert.ca/rising-stars/winner-d ... on-llp-169

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Interview with Arafat Jamal, Chief of IASC Secretariat in Geneva

The Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) is a unique forum, made of the main humanitarian actors, for coordination of humanitarian assistance. In an interview conducted at the end of March, Arafat Jamal, the outgoing Chief of IASC Secretariat in Geneva, talks about the role of the IASC, IASC's coordination, and today's main humanitarian challenges

More...
http://www.geneve-int.ch/interview-araf ... iat-geneva
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Post by kmaherali »

Love of food puts women on same page for new cookbook with a spicy touch

The plate of samosas are still hot from the deep fryer, golden brown and crisp, lined up on the plate Noorbanu Nimji has set on the table next to chutneys and wedges of lemon. She and Karen Anderson nibble off one of the corners, curls of steam swirling up, and then they both squeeze in the fresh lemon, letting the juice trickle into the centre of the triangular pastries.

The two women appear to be foils for the other. Anderson energetic and emphatic, chattily talking and fussing, while Nimji is calm and quiet, occasionally interjecting in the conversation and encouraging us to just eat one more samosa while they’re hot.

When it comes to food, though, they are on the same page.

That is literally the case as they release their new cookbook, A Spicy Touch — Family Favourites from Noorbanu Nimji’s Kitchen. A hefty, brightly coloured and inviting book, it features recipes Nimji has been cooking over a 60-year span, from the traditional ones she learned from her in-laws as a young married woman living in Kenya to more modern takes on dishes her children and grandchildren enjoy today. The 225 recipes cover curries and grilled foods, desserts and baking and of those 154 are vegetarian while 180 are gluten free.

More....

http://calgaryherald.com/life/food/reci ... picy-touch

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Undergraduate research award recipient co-authors paper in scientific journal

UBC Okanagan fourth-year chemistry student Shaqil Rahemtulla has done what is usually reserved for graduate students and professors: published research in a scientific journal.

As a 2015 Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Award recipient, Rahemtulla has been working under the supervision of Associate Professor and Chemistry Department Head Gino DiLabio on the influence of sodium cations on reactions between oxygen-centered radicals and amino acid models.

Along with graduate student Jeffrey van Santen, Rahemtulla made significant contributions to the paper entitled, A computational and experimental re-examination of the reaction of the benzyloxyl radical with DMSO, which has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Computational and Theoretical Chemistry’s special issue on “Antioxidants vs. Oxidative Stress: Insights from Computation”.

More....
https://news.ok.ubc.ca/ikbarberschool/2 ... c-journal/

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the-silent-heroes-of-the-kuweires-offensive-the-ismaelis

Post by Admin »

syriareport.net/the-silent-hereos-of-the-kuweires-offensive-the-ismaelis

Syria Report

The silent heroes of the kuweires offensive: the Ismaelis


01 Dec 2015

The city of Al-Salamiyah is not only one of the largest cities in the Hama Governorate; it is also home to the largest Ismaeli population in the world.

The Ismaelis have been targeted for many centuries because of their religious beliefs (similar to the Druze); and as a result, they have transformed into a tough, but peaceful minority group that keeps to themselves, while assimilating into Syrian civil society.

When the war came to the doorsteps of Al-Salamiyah, the Ismaelis remained neutral – they have dealt with persecution before and they fully understood the adverse effects of their participation.

Nevertheless, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” did not respect their neutrality; instead, they attempted to make a push towards the strategic city of Al-Salamiyah, only to be routed by the Syrian Arab Army defending the civilian population.

Fast forward a year later, the city of Al-Salamiyah was threatened once again; however, this time, it was from the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) terrorists, who had just captured the Tabaqa Airbase in the Al-Raqqa Governorate.

Unable to reach some of the villages near the Raqqa-Hama border, the newly formed “National Defense Forces” (NDF) of Al-Salamiyah watched as their people were massacred by the ISIS terrorists because of their religious beliefs.

From that moment on, the Ismaelis that formed the National Defense Forces contingent in Al-Salamiyah refused to shy away from any fight that included ISIS; this bravery proved vital in the Summer of 2015, when they finally routed the terrorist group from the east Hama front.

Following ISIS’ large-scale offensive to cutoff the Khanasser-Ithriyah Road, the Ismaelis answered the call from the Syrian Arab Army’s Central Command – they needed men to help liberate the soldiers trapped at the Kuweires Military Airport in east Aleppo.

Not only were the Ismaeli NDF fighters one of the largest groups participating in this offensive, they were also some of the best fighters against the ISIS terrorists that refused to retreat.

Alongside the Tiger Forces, the NDF of Al-Salamiyah (also known as “Liwaa Suqour Al-Sahra”) were ferocious on the battlefield, pushing deep into the village Sheikh Ahmad while also killing several ISIS militants.

Their aggressiveness paid off in the end, as they were among the first fighters to reach the besieged airport.

Sadly, their gallantry came at a heavy cost of life, as several NDF fighters were reportedly killed during the liberation of the Kuweires Military Airport, including one of Al-Salamiyah’s most decorated sons on the battlefield, 1st. Lt. ‘Ali ‘Ali ‘Eid (commander of Liwaa Suqour Al-Sahra).
Ali Eid, one of Syria's heroes, killed in action around Kuwaires Airbase against ‪ISIS‬ terrorists

Ali Eid, one of Syria’s heroes, killed in action around Kuwaires Airbase against ‪ISIS‬ terrorists

While Syrians were jubilant over the victory at the Kuweires Military Airport, the people of Al-Salamiyah had to quietly bury their sons who dedicated their lives to freeing the 314 soldiers.

The Ismaeli fighters did not ask for anything in return; if you ask them why they decided to risk their lives in east Aleppo, they will tell you it is their duty as Syrians.

By: @leithfadel and @Syria_Protector (Majd.F) on Twitter
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Post by kmaherali »

Trudeau names 35 new parliamentary secretaries – Arif Virani, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

Ottawa, Ontario 2 December 2015: The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement after the appointment of 35 parliamentary secretaries:

“In order to build a country that works for everyone, you need a strong and diverse team. Today I have the pleasure of announcing that 35 remarkable Canadians will be taking on new and expanded responsibilities. These highly motivated individuals, who come from a variety of backgrounds and communities across our great country, bring a wealth of talent and experience to the table that will complement existing Cabinet strengths..."

http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2015/12/02/sta ... ecretaries

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named his 35 new parliamentary secretaries Wednesday afternoon.

In a document posted to the government’s website, Trudeau named Whitby MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes as his personal parliamentary secretary and appointed 34 others to assist with ministerial responsibilities including Arif Virani (Parkdale–High Park), Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
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Post by kmaherali »

VP Karim Kassam welcomes Princess Astrid of Belgium on tour of Ballard Power Systems, Burnaby

Princess Astrid of Belgium, centre right, laughs as she and Minister-President of Flanders Geert Bourgeois, centre left, are welcomed by employees including Ballard Power Systems vice-president of business and corporate development Karim Kassam, left, during a visit to the hydrogen fuel cell manufacturer in Burnaby, B.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015.

http://www.canada.com/Canada_Belgium_Ro ... story.html

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Abyd Karmali: What Can Investors Expect from Paris, COP21?

Managing Value At Risk For Portfolios From Climate Change. What Are The Financial Implications Of COP21?

Panel 1. What Can Investors Expect from Paris, COP21? Chaired by Kirsty Hamilton, Low Carbon Finance Group,Chatham House

Panelists:
■Abyd Karmali, Managing Director, Climate Finance, Bank of America Merrill Lynch
■Anthony Hobley, CEO Carbon Tracker
■James Cameron, Chairman of the Overseas Development Institute
■Nick Robins, Co-Director UNEP Inquiry.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... ris-cop21/

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Dr. Farida Virani at the Lion’s Leadership Development Programme

The Lion’s club is one of the most effective and the world’s largest service club organization with 46,000 clubs and 1.4+ million members globally. True to their motto ‘we serve’ they do whatever is needed to help their local communities. Leaders at every level are volunteers. The organization supports their leaders with a wide range of tools, conventions and impressive leadership development programmes, at the club, district, multiple district and international levels.

One such leadership development programme ‘Magnificence’ was conducted in partnership with the renowned, S.P.Jain’s Management and Research Center in Mumbai on 11th Oct 2015. Dr. Farida Virani was invited to speak on ‘Adversity Quotient’ where she deliberated upon the various tools and techniques to reveal how leaders at any level can transform difficult circumstances into opportunities for growth and success. Mr. Juzer Udaipuria a Lion member and a lawyer by profession, wrote in his feedback , “ you certainly added value to my time spend on a Sunday afternoon by providing valuable insights, in a structured manner, with many real life example to add to our understanding”.

The session concluded well with the participants agreeing to the profound thought, ‘Adversity does not test character; it actually reveals it’.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... programme/
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Post by kmaherali »

Strategic Group switches focus to commercial properties

Calgary-based Strategic Group, under the leadership of chief executive Riaz Mamdani, has enjoyed a tremendous year, with more than 90 per cent of its 4.5-million-square-foot Alberta real estate portfolio leased.

Mamdani said there is no denying the weakened Alberta economy has caused many companies to rethink their strategies. While remaining committed to the vision and mission he established 14 years ago, Mamdani, too, has changed the company’s focus to concentrate on building rental apartments rather than commercial properties.

The Strategic team was asked to pay special attention to lease out a new six-storey office/retail building on 4th Street S.W. All 140,000 square feet is taken, with Hopewell as its major tenant with two and a half floors of space.

Mamdani recognized the shortage of rental suites and has a portfolio of 2,500 suites, with 700 under construction and another 500 to be started within the next six months

http://calgaryherald.com/business/real- ... -strategic
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Post by kmaherali »

Asifa Samji: Canada’s Most Powerful Women – Women’s Executive Network

ASIFA SAMJI - VP, Environmental Services, STANTEC

BIO: Asifa Samji leads approximately 800 staff comprised of environmental scientists, engineers and project managers. She was recently appointed to the company’s first-ever diversity and inclusion council, which reports directly to the CEO with a mandate to identify impacts and develop diversity and inclusion strategies for each business unit.

BREAKING BARRIERS: “Lack of confidence and the fear some women have to ‘show up’ and promote their talents, knowledge and experience has held women back in our industry. We need to create more opportunities for women to hear and learn from success stories of other women. I am currently helping to pilot an internal women’s support network to help female colleagues identify and remove barriers that may be preventing career advancement.”

Source: Women's Executive Network

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... e-network/

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Danisha Bhaloo to run for seat on Edmonton City Council

Bhaloo currently works with Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Boys and Girls Club of Edmonton, while also holding a number of volunteer board positions including the Edmonton Opera and sitting on the University of Alberta’s senate.


With Amarjeet Sohi officially elected as an MP, the race to replace him on city council has its first contender.

Danisha Bhaloo announced on social media Tuesday that she would be seeking the Ward 12 seat that Sohi is vacating.

She said she feels a need to serve the community.

“The city has done a lot for me and my family and I would like to give back,” she said.

http://www.metronews.ca/news/edmonton/2 ... -seat.html
kmaherali
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Karima Kanani – Miller Thomson LLP – Lexpert Rising Stars 2015

Karima Kanani named 2015 Lexpert Rising Star.

Miller Thomson Partner Karima Kanani has been named among Lexpert’s 2015 Rising Stars: Leading Lawyers Under 40.

The prestigious honour, presented annually by Lexpert magazine, recognizes the outstanding achievements of young lawyers from across Canada. Winners are selected by an advisory board made up of senior members of the legal community on such criteria as track record of success in deals and/or cases, demonstrating value to the firm and community involvement.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... tars-2015/

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Nana’s Kitchen wins 2015 British Columbia Multicultural Award

FIVE multicultural champions were recognized Nov. 20, 2015, before friends, family and their peers at the sixth British Columbia Multicultural Awards event.

This year’s award recipients reached out to people over the airwaves, in the classroom, at community centres, through work and on the web; providing training where it was needed and attracting people of all cultural affiliations to their cross-cultural events and outreach activities.

The 2015 British Columbia Multicultural Award recipients:
■Business: Nana’s Kitchen & Hot Sauces Ltd.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... ral-award/

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Zool Suleman hosts “Let’s Talk: Syrian Refugees, Islamophobia and Canadian Identity”

On December 5th at 2pm at Centre A, Refugee Advocate and Writer Zool Suleman hosts a discussion in response to “Abounaddara. The Right to the Image.” Abounaddara’s weekly short films offer a glimpse of the lives of ordinary Syrians without restricting them to political or religious affiliations.

Zool Suleman is a Refugee Advocate and Writer who has been involved at the nexus of law/culture/production for many years. In addition to being a lawyer, he published and edited Rungh, A South Asian Journal of Culture Comment and Criticism from 1990-1997.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... -identity/

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Odyssey: Showcasing the work of Ismaili Muslim artists

Odyssey: Past Meets Present

An interdisciplinary group exhibition showcasing the work of Ismaili Muslim artists who explore past influences in contemporary art. History has a way of evolving into the present, influencing new ideas, and challenging traditions and past patterns. A Roundhouse partnership with Ismaili Council for BC. Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Nov 23 – Dec 1, 2015.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... m-artists/
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Feisal Nanji launches his new book “Made in Kenya” with humorous vignettes about growing up in Africa

Travel back to the Kenya of the 1960s and 1970s in this enlightening and touching series of vignettes about an Indian boy growing up in Africa.

Author Feisal Nanji relives his childhood and teenage years in this humorous account of an awkward, skinny, clumsy boy growing up in a tight-knit Indian community. With stories about lobbying his family for a new pair of soccer boots and living through the awkwardness of puberty, Nanji gives readers a glimpse into the culture of Ismaili Muslims and other Indians who are part of a community that migrated to Kenya in the late nineteenth century.

Above all, Made in Kenya is a book about friendship. Bringing to life his friends and adventures in each short tale, Nanji examines how each and every one influenced his own destiny.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... in-africa/

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Abdul Ghaffar Nazari represents Afghanistan in Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit

Abdul Ghaffar Nazari, attends the Asia 21 Young Leaders Summit in its 10th year anniversary which was hosted by Asia Society in Hong Kong.

A proud Ismaili Muslim hailing from Afghanistan, he represented Afghanistan in class 2015 of Asia 21 Young Leaders among 32 others from 22 Asian countries.

Asia 21 Society is building a network of young leaders (under the age of 40) across the Asia-Pacific as a way to promote mutual understanding and effective collaboration among the next generation’s most important and influential leaders. In 10 years, with a movement of more than 800 powerful alumni from more than 30 countries, Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative stands as the Asia-Pacific’s foremost young leaders network.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... rs-summit/

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Asfar Hussain: The power of Bayaan

Only a few years ago when Coke Studio was shining at its brightest, there emerged a group of college boys led by a veteran rock musician, who churned up a music show that distanced itself from the monotony that South Asia’s biggest music show had plunged into. This new troupe on the block called its jam room Nescafe Basement. Its first season wasn’t exactly a roaring success but some of the tracks like Tere Ishq Mein did make waves.

The show went on to gain momentum over four seasons and also give a boost of confidence to four of its producer’s protégés, bassist Haider Abbas, drummer Mansoor Lashari, guitarist Shahrukh Aslam and vocalist Asfar Hussain. Combining forces with guitarist Muqueet Shahzad, they formed a band they call Bayaan. “We call ourselves Bayaan because we want to express [ourselves] through our music. Each one of us has had diverse experiences in life,” said Muqueet.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... of-bayaan/
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Help pours in for Syrian refugees in Calgary, despite economic woes

CALGARY - Naheed Gilani's investments have been pummelled by the crude price collapse, but the Calgarian says he hasn't hesitated for a moment to contribute thousands of dollars to sponsor a Syrian refugee family.

"My reasoning was, 'we can't afford to wait for the next person who might be in a better economic condition than I am,'" said the 35-year-old, who is part of a group of five Calgarians sponsoring a widow and her two young children.

Calgary is expected to take in up to 1,300 refugees in the coming weeks, though final figures have not been pinned down. Of those, 502 are through private sponsorships — one of the highest numbers for Canadian cities, according to federal government figures. All this as mass layoffs in the oilpatch become a regular occurrence and year-end bonuses are slashed.

Gilani, born into a comfortable life in Canada to East African immigrant parents, said it's important to put Calgary's economic woes into perspective.

"I just think people get so used to their high level of Canadian standards that we're not as resilient in the face of a downturn as we should be. People don't know what resiliency really is," he said.

Stephen Scott, an engineer who was laid off in October, said he has no qualms about Calgary taking in refugees.

"I'm not going to be looking for the same jobs they are," he said. "If you had a family living in Syria, you'd want to get out of there. So we need to give these people some opportunity. When we were born in North America and the western countries, it's like we won the lottery."

Even though a light-rail transit station in Calgary was scrawled with anti-refugee graffiti earlier this month, that intolerance isn't representative of the vast majority of what Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he's witnessed in the city.

He estimates that 95 per cent of the feedback he gets on the refugee issue is from Calgarians clamouring to help.

"But there is a little undercurrent and people are saying 'Look — if you're being so helpful to these refugees, what about people who are hurting right now?' And that's a fair question," he said.

"But of course let's remember that folks that are hurting right now have access to a huge raft of resources, whether it's (employment insurance) or social programs or housing in our current community, whereas the folks who are coming are fleeing unspeakable violence and trauma and don't have anything."

In Calgary, social housing will not go to refugees, as waiting lists for those units are already long.

Rather, Nenshi said, it will be up to the private sector to find homes for the refugees. Local real estate firms have already offered discounts and free rent for refugee families and Nenshi said he's even hearing from citizens eager to offer up basements or spare rooms.

There are some common misunderstandings about the economic impact the refugees will have on the city of 1.2 million, Nenshi added.

"Last year, with the economic downturn well in play, we added 3,000 new Calgarians every month," he said. "To absorb another 1,000 people, half of whom are children, over the course of the next couple of months, even in a time of economic downturn — in a city this size, it shouldn't have any impact really whatsoever on individuals."

Nor should Calgary experience any hardship from 300 to 400 refugees entering the job market in "dribs and drabs" as they complete their language training and update professional accreditation, he added, and the city's social services won't be unduly strained.

"We normally bring in 1,000 refugees a year in any given year. So certainly we're looking at doubling that in a shorter period of time, but those resources are available, whether you're talking about English classes or trauma counsellors or mental health folks or the school boards being able to welcome these kids into their community."

Community organizer Saima Jamal said looking for a job isn't a top priority for refugees when they first arrive.

"The first six months, you just focus on language training," she said. "They're just right now getting their feet wet and entering a new country."

Jamal, who has been working to match Syrian families with sponsor groups, said the support she's seen has been "overwhelming."

"If one person is faltering, somebody else is always picking up," she said.

Many Calgarians unable to put thousands of dollars toward private sponsorships are still finding ways to help within their budget, said Jamal. That could include taking a family shopping for winter clothing or on a day trip to Banff.

D.D. Coutts, manager of communications for the Calgary Food Bank, says the arrival of refugees will add to the already increased demand caused by the downturn.

Preparations are under way, especially getting pantry hampers ready with the basics like flour, sugar, salt and pepper — "that initial kitchen set-up," as Coutts puts it.

"That amount of people will not impact us enormously. We always have new immigrants coming in, always have new Albertans coming to the province."

http://www.timescolonist.com/help-pours ... -1.2130194

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Zahra N. Jamal: Living the Faith: Religion and Spirituality in Everyday American Life

While the media typically covers religious conflict, the overwhelming majority of faith adherents draws on religion to promote community and peace in the global village. Religion is shaped by, and in turn shapes, those who “live the faith” in their daily lives. This course will uncover the worldviews, beliefs and practices of the three Abrahamic religious traditions in modern American life: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Anthropologist and religious scholar Zahra N. Jamal, Ph.D., will guide participants in examining the ways in which these faiths express everyday spirituality through worship and prayer, food and hunger, illness and wellness, religious objects, and acts of social justice. Through a combination of lecture and discussion, participants will be encouraged to reflect on the commonalities and unique aspects of these religious traditions and the diverse ways people of Abrahamic and other faiths experience spirituality in their daily lives. Alejandro Chaoul, Ph.D., will join Dr. Jamal for the discussion of illness, wellness and religion.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... ican-life/

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Earls Kitchen and Bar named top employer in Canada in employee survey

The family-owned business is 1 of 25 companies listed in the Employee's Choice Awards


Vancouver-based Earls Kitchen and Bar has been named best place to work in Canada in a survey released today.

It joins other notable companies listed in Glassdoor's Employee's Choice Awards like Lululemon and Apple. Glassdoor, a North American recruiting company based in California, releases award results annually based on 1.6 million reviews from employees who submit anonymous company reviews.

This is the first time the company has handed out an award specific to Canada.

Earls says it was a surprise to hear it got the top spot.

"It's a little intimidating to be honest," said Mo Jessa, president of Earls.

"And yet, I think I feel proud for our people. They get to feel that there's something special about the company that they work for, and what better way of giving them some recognition."

The 33-year old family-run business has 66 restaurants in Canada and the United States.

Transparency

Jessa, who started at Earls as a prep cook and dishwasher 27 years ago, believes the company is being recognized for its transparency and willingness to improve.

"I wouldn't say that this award should mean that we're perfect at anything."


Mo Jessa, president of Earls, started at the company as a dish washer and prep cook 27 years ago. (Earls)

Earls has been criticized in the past for hiring based on appearances rather than merit. But Jessa says that was a misunderstanding.

"Inside the company, our people don't' say that that's what this company does. It's a company for people to have opportunity," said Jessa.

He acknowledged that the company tended to hire younger, energetic people, due partly to the owner's youth. Stan Fuller was 27 years old when he and his father, Leroy Earl Fuller opened the first Earls. The focus was on growth in the company, said Jessa.

"One hundred per cent of the GMs and chefs that run Earls started off as servers and cooks."

Continued growth

Finding long-term success as a restaurant in North America, let alone Vancouver, is not easy.

"We have some of the best restaurants in Vancouver and I think it takes a real sense of discipline and a commitment to higher principle than just profit," said Jessa.

"Earls has always thought as a family business, what is it doing for its people, what is it trying to do in terms of making a difference in its community."

Jessa says the company plans to open two to four new restaurants in the United States every year for the foreseeable future.

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To listen to the full audio, click the link labelled: Earls restaurant named top employer in Canada

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/brit ... -1.3357211
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Ms. Yasmin Ratansi, Member Parliament of Canada, pays special tribute to His Highness the Aga Khan on his birthday

Ms. Yasmin Ratansi (Don Valley East, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to thank the constituents of Don Valley East for re- electing me to Parliament.

My riding is proud to house three architectural jewels of Toronto: the Aga Khan Museum, the lsmaili Centre, and the Aga Khan Park built in Canada by His Highness the Aga Khan with his own funds.

On December 13, His Highness will be celebrating his 79th birthday. I rise today in the House to pay a special tribute to a remarkable human being. His tireless efforts in building bridges across the globe, his commitment to eradicating poverty and ignorance for millions of people, irrespective of race or religion, through the AKDN network are unparalleled.

I was fortunate to have worked with His Highness in establishing the Global Centre for Pluralism here in Ottawa.

Happy birthday to the Hazar Imam. May all who come in touch with him benefit from his integrity, humility, honesty, and courage to do good.

Source: Parliament of Canada – December 10, 2015

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... -birthday/
kmaherali
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New nightly current affairs program ‘Ali Velshi on Target’

May 11, 2015: Al Jazeera America will today debut ‘Ali Velshi on Target’, a new, nightly current affairs program hosted by award-winning journalist and Al Jazeera America anchor Ali Velshi.

On Monday night’s debut episode, Velshi will explore the debt crisis in Greece with an interview with former Pimco Chief Executive Mohamed El-Erian and original reporting from Velshi’s recent trip to Greece where he focused on the nation’s controversial austerity programs and how Greece’s recession led to a 26% unemployment rate. The show will also cover New York’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), which recently made waves when it voted to ban all political advertising on subways, buses and commuter rails. MTA board member Allen Cappelli speaks to Velshi about why he voted against the measure, and what the ban could mean for free speech.

“I’m looking forward to launching ‘Ali Velshi on Target,’” said Velshi, “and continuing my journalism work at Al Jazeera America which is focused on speaking truth to power and giving voice to the voiceless.”

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... on-target/

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receive award from Brampton Board of Trade

May 7, 2015: Having recently celebrated Royal Canadian Steel’s 25th anniversary, Feroz and Karim have been making a name for themselves, both here and abroad. Having immigrated to Canada many years ago, Feroz and Karim have a combined effort of 55 years work experience in Canada, with the last 10 years based here in Brampton as their international headquarters.

With more than 80% of their business focused on exporting around the world, the company has a strong international presence with offices in England, Belgium, and Bangladesh. However, in their acceptance speech, Feroz and Karim truly believe their Brampton location is one of the keys to their international success.


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Aleem Bandali: Forty Under 40 Winner 2015

Senior vice-president and director, MNP Corporate Finance Inc., Age 37

As senior vice-president and director of MNP Corporate Finance Inc., one of Canada’s largest corporate finance companies, Aleem Bandali has run engagements of up to $30 billion in size.

He has worked with large clients, including the U.S. Department of Energy, MGM Resorts International and Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Working behind the scenes to help them finesse acquisitions, mergers, divestments and other megadeals, he is a master of discretion, taking care not to reveal secrets from the boardroom.

But there is one project he is happy to talk about.

He was the lead on winning and delivering the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics athletes village project while working at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Vancouver

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... nner-2015/

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Ishkandar Ahmed: Choices Markets to open 11th store, in North Vancouver

Chain is one of several independent grocers to open new stores in Metro Vancouver in 2015

Fast-growing Vancouver-based grocer Choices Market plans to open its 11th location, in North Vancouver, in late spring 2016. Earlier this year, the company opened stores on Commercial Drive in Vancouver as well as in Burnaby and in Abbotsford.

The 25-year-old company’s 12,000-square-foot store is set to be in Capilano Village, at 801 Marine Drive near Fell Avenue.

“North Vancouver is a hub for active health-conscious, community-minded citizens, and the population is definitely growing,” said Choices CEO Ishkandar Ahmed about why he chose to open in the area.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... vancouver/

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kmaherali
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Chess National Master, Danial Asaia wins National K-12 Grade Championship

Danial Asaria (Chess National Master), 8th grader won a National K-12 Grade Championship which was held from Friday, December 4th to Sunday December 6th in Orlando, Florida.

Danial received the “National Master” title from US Chess Federation. Another milestone for Danial was winning Gold Medal in US Ismail Games in Dallas, Texas.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... mpionship/

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Award-winning cookbook author Maria Speck

Maria Speck is an Ismaili food journalist and author of Ancient Grains for Modern Meals, which won the Julia Child award as well as other accolades in the publishing world (including NY Times and Washington Post top cookbook). She recently published a new cookbook, Simply Ancient Grains. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post named Simply Ancient Grains a top cookbook, and Cooking Light magazine included it as one of 100 best cookbooks of the past 25 years. Maria is currently an instructor in the professional program of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, and has contributed to Gourmet, Saveur, Gastronomica, the Vegetarian Times, and Cooking Pleasures.

Website: mariaspeck.com – Facebook: authormariaspeck – Twitter: @MariaSpeck
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Carleton University’s Ugandan Asian Archives Road Show

Carleton University would like to invite you to a special event to view materials from the Ugandan Asian Archive Collection in Toronto on Saturday January 23, 2016 from 1:00 to 4:00pm at the S. Walter Stewart Branch of the Toronto Public Library (John S. Ridout Auditorium) located at 170 Memorial Park Avenue (Closest major intersection Coxwell Ave. and Mortimer Ave).

Carleton University's Ugandan Asian Archives Road ShowOn August 4, 1972, then-President of Uganda, Idi Amin, ordered the expulsion of the country’s Asian population. At the time, there were over 80,000 individuals of Asian origin in Uganda. With 90 days to leave, families scrambled to find a place to go. Those with Ugandan passports were stripped of their citizenship, making them stateless. Canada was one of the first countries to respond to Idi Amin’s order.

Given the importance of capturing the memories and experience of the South Asian people during this period, Carleton University has created the Ugandan Asian Archive Collection https://arc.library.carleton.ca/exhibit ... collection). This is a unique archive collection that gives insight into the 1972 South Asian expulsion from Uganda and the subsequent resettlement in Canada.

The event on January 23rd in Toronto will showcase archival material as well as oral histories that have been donated to the Ugandan Asian Archive Collection. The event will feature:
◾Wayne Jones, Carleton University Librarian
◾Patti Harper, Head, Archives and Research Collections
◾Michael Molloy who was previously Ambassador of Canada to Jordan. Mr. Molloy was sent by the Canadian Government to Uganda in 1972 to work under the direction of Roger St. Vincent. Mr. Molloy was second in command at the Kampala office of the Canadian Mission during the time of the expulsion.
◾Tasneem Jamal, author of Where the Air is Sweet
◾Nizar Fakirani, a lawyer based in Toronto whose family was up-rooted from Uganda in 1972
◾Shezan Muhammedi, PhD candidate in History, Migration and Ethnic Relations at Western University who is conducting oral histories with Ugandan Asian refugees from across Canada.

By sharing the work being done at Archives and Research Collections with the Ugandan Asian community in the Toronto area, we hope to encourage others to participate in our oral history project and contribute to new acquisition activities.

To attend the event, please register at the following website http://events.carleton.ca/ugandan-asian ... road-show/ or contact Kylie Patrick at 613-520-2600. The event is free.

Click here to download PDF flyer

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... road-show/
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Lawyers Jalal Jaffer and M. Ali Lakhani recognized with Queen’s Counsel designation

Ministry of Justice: Exceptional lawyers recognized with Queen’s counsel designation

December 18, 2015: Thirty-nine lawyers have been appointed the honorary title of Queen’s counsel, or QC, Attorney General Suzanne Anton announced today.

Appointees are from throughout British Columbia and run the gamut of legal practice. Included are lawyers who specialize in First Nations law, criminal law, commercial litigation, family law and mediation. The appointees are advocates for continuing legal education, community volunteerism and mentorship of new legal professionals.

Jalaludin Ali Jaffer has been with Peterson Stark Scott for more than 35 years and has practised in the areas of civil litigation, commercial and residential real estate, corporate and wills and estates. Jaffer was founding chair of the Ismaili Legal Professionals of BC, honourary secretary of the first Shia Imami Ismaili National Council for Canada and is a member of the International Conciliation and Arbitration Board, which provides dispute resolution services to members of the Ismaili community around the world.

Moosa Ali Lakhani has practised as a civil litigator before the Supreme Court of Canada in 2010 in a class action that took him seven years to successfully defend and as a business lawyer handling complex commercial transactions. He founded Lakhani & Company in 2003 to focus on complex civil litigation and administrative law with an emphasis on regulatory bodies governed by the Health Professions Act. Lakhani has served on the Multicultural Committee of the Law Society of B.C. and lectured to the Ismaili Bar and at the University of Victoria. He was appointed by His Highness The Aga Khan as the first chair of the Ismaili Conciliation and Ministry of Justice Arbitration Board and was recently appointed a member of the International Conciliation and Arbitration Board.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... signation/
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Farhan Lalani: Forty Under 40 Winner 2015

Forty Under 40 Winner 2015: Founder and CEO, Market One Media Group, 37

If Wall Street or Boiler Room is playing on a TV anywhere near Farhan Lalani, it’s going to be tough to drag him away from the screen.

Growing up in a family where the capital markets were frequent fodder for dinner-table discussions, the 37-year-old said it wasn’t long before he was addicted to any movie featuring brokers.

“That’s where my passion was,” said Lalani, the founder and CEO of Market One Media Group.

His parents, who arrived in Canada as refugees from Uganda in the 1970s, paid for private schooling when he was young and kept him inspired to pursue his passions later on in life.

He eventually turned that passion for broker films into a career in the markets during his 20s, first as an analyst and then as an investment adviser.

https://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2015/ ... nner-2015/

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The Gujarati way

Going global

Secrets of the world’s best businesspeople

Excerpt:

"AS BRITISH imperialists were trudging through African jungles to secure their newly conquered empire, some of the empire’s subjects were also roaming far and wide, under the cover of the Union flag. One was Allidina Visram, from Kutch, in what is now Gujarat state in India. He arrived penniless in Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania) on the east African coast in 1863, aged 12. He opened his first small shop 14 years later, and soon afterwards spotted his great opportunity. He opened a store at every large railway station along the 580 miles of railway track being laid down through Kenya to Uganda in the early 1900s, providing supplies to thousands of railway workers. He then opened more stores at Jinja on Lake Victoria."

More...

http://www.economist.com/news/christmas ... ing-global
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