Your Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to be here today for the official opening of this new Ismaili Centre in London and I am most grateful to His Highness the Aga Khan for the honour he has done me in inviting me to perform the opening ceremony.
May I also thank His Highness and the President of the Ismaili Council for their welcome today.
The building of this splendid new Centre, which will provide facilities for religious observance and for social functions within the Ismaili community, must reflect a sense of stability [end p1] and confidence in the future.
Although there has been an Ismaili community in this country for very many years, I know that many members came here comparatively recently, having been uprooted from settled and successful lives in East Africa: and for them, leaving East Africa must have been a sad, deeply disturbing and in some cases, terrible experience.
But clearly the Ismaili community who made Britain their new home triumphed over these adversities and have found here a new sense of security and belonging. This Centre is a powerful symbol of that feeling of belonging. [end p2] And in return Britain, like so many other parts of the world where there are Ismaili communities, benefits from the contributions that Ismailis make to society.
The Ismaili community in London is self-sufficient and independent, energetic and highly talented, contributing to society in every sort of way: and at the same time its powerful sense of community, both spiritual and cultural, provides a firm and unchanging basis for living.
This stability and coherence of the Ismaili community is a valuable example.
Many migrants who have come to this country [end p3] to settle in recent years have had to come to terms with a life that is very different from their old one.
In the process of change and adaptation they have been sustained by a sense of purpose and stability derived from a firm faith and a valued heritage.
I respect this adherence to your traditional values and understand that it is a necessary part of creating a firm foundation for full participation in the wider society.
Britain is now, more than ever, a multicultural society: and I think that we are beginning to appreciate the challenges and the opportunities for learning that this [end p4] diversity offers.
We need not be afraid that these new influences will somehow threaten the ‘British way of life’: on the contrary, a new resilience derived from diversity can only strengthen Britain.
And we know how much your community values service to the wider local community.
Many of the Aga Khan hospital and educational services set up around the world are open to all regardless of race or creed.
And I understand and welcome that many of the facilities of this Centre will be available for other Londoners to use. [end p5]
The work of the Aga Khan Foundation in other continents too shows how your community adopts this positive approach.
And I am proud that the British Government, with the Foundation, are currently co-financing projects of benefit to the people of Pakistan.
Britain certainly gains in many ways from the presence of the Ismaili community here, and London itself is enhanced by the construction of the new Centre, for which we are all most grateful to His Highness the Aga Khan. It is a magnificent contribution to the [end p6] architecture of London.
It fits in easily with the other fine buildings of South Kensington, yet it has its own distinctive character too.
It seems to encapsulate the determination of your community to integrate your citizens into the society in which we all live, while at the same time retaining their own identity and independence.
The new building is not very far in distance from the former Ismaili Centre in Palace Gate; but the Ismaili community has come a long way since that Centre was established—and established, I think I am right in saying, by His Highness the Aga Khan's [end p7] grandfather.
This Centre is a most attractive and beautifully designed structure and a welcome newcomer to the Royal Borough.
It is a splendid testament to the vitality of the Ismaili community here, and it is with great pleasure that I now formally declare the Ismaili Centre open.