Introduced by MALIK MERCHANT

Further to our recent video presentation of Vancouver Ismaili lawyer M. Ali Lakhani’s appearance before the Senate of Canada’s Standing Committee on Human Rights on the topic of Islamophobia, we are pleased to provide a link to the full transcript of the video on the Senate website.

Mr. Lakhani was in the first panel with two other witnesses, Nuzhat Jafri, the Executive Director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women and Maryam Khan, Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Social Work at the Wilfrid Laurier University. He was participating in his capacity as the Editor of Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, a journal he founded 25 years ago, and now the leading journal in its field.

In his testimony, Mr. Lakhani discusses the causes of Islamophobia, quoting His Highness the Aga Khan at several points in his remarks, and highlights the ideas of the Ismaili Imam and the initiatives of the Global Centre for Pluralism and Imamat Institutions contributing as educational correctives to Islamophobia.

His presentation generated interest and comments from the Senators. Please read the full transcript of all the six participating witnesses by clicking on Islamophobia: Senate of Canada Standing Committee.

Date posted: December 20, 2022.

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M. Ali Lakhani, QC, graduated from Cambridge University and has been practising as a barrister in Vancouver for the last forty years. Interested in applying metaphysics to modern world issues, in 1998 he founded Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, a leading journal in the field that has published articles by the Prince of Wales, the Dalai Lama, Karen Armstrong, Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and William C. Chittick, among others. Mr. Lakhani’s book Faith and Ethics: The Vision of the Ismaili Imamat has been featured in Simerg’s special series on books by Ismaili authors.

Introduced by MALIK MERCHANT

Vancouver lawyer, M. Ali Lakhani, KC, was invited by the Senate of Canada to testify before its Standing Committee on Human Rights on the topic of Islamophobia. He was participating in his capacity as the Editor of Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity (www.sacredweb.com), a journal he founded 25 years ago, and now the leading journal in its field. Mr. Lakhani has written several articles on Islam, Islamophobia and on misunderstandings about Islam and Muslims, and he has spoken at universities and public events on these topics. Examples of his writing on these subjects are:

• Reclaiming the Centre, an assessment of Islam in the wake of 9/11
• Looking Beyond Islamophobia: Three Case Studies
• Charlie Hebdo Redux: Islam and Free Speech
• The Politics of Dignity

Each of three witnesses testifying before the Standing Committee made a 5-minute opening statement, which was followed by about an hour of questions from the Senators.

In his opening statement, Mr. Lakhani spoke of the value of viewing Islamophobia through the wider and harmonizing lens of human dignity rather than the Senate’s suggested frame of gender, and intergenerational and intersectional expressions of Islamophobia, which he said might be polarizing and subject to identity politics. He cited GK Chesterton’s comment, ‘When people begin to ignore human dignity, it will not be long before they begin to ignore human rights.’

Mr. Lakhani went on to discuss the causes of Islamophobia, quoting His Highness the Aga Khan at several points in his remarks, and highlighted the ideas of the Ismaili Imam and the initiatives of the Global Centre for Pluralism and Imamat Institutions contributing as educational correctives to Islamophobia. His presentation, and these ideas and initiatives, generated interest and comments from the Senators.

We invite our readers to view a video of Mr. Lakhani’s testimony HERE.

Date posted: November 30, 2022.

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M. Ali Lakhani, QC, graduated from Cambridge University and has been practising as a barrister in Vancouver for the last forty years. Interested in applying metaphysics to modern world issues, in 1998 he founded Sacred Web: A Journal of Tradition and Modernity, a leading journal in the field that has published articles by the Prince of Wales, the Dalai Lama, Karen Armstrong, Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and William C. Chittick, among others. Mr. Lakhani’s book Faith and Ethics: The Vision of the Ismaili Imamat has been featured in Simerg’s special series on books by Ismaili authors.

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Before departing this website, please take a moment to review Simerg’s Table of Contents for links to hundreds of thought-provoking pieces on a vast array of subjects including faith and culture, history and philosophy, and arts and letters to name a few. Also visit Simerg’s sister websites Barakah, dedicated to His Highness the Aga Khan, and Simergphotos. The editor may be reached via email at mmerchant@simerg.com.