Lord Beaverbrook High School visits Calgary Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre

On May 4, 2009 Ms. Nicole Cameron, Ms. Michelle Kuss-Hornby and students from the World Religions class (Gr. 11 and 12) came to visit the Calgary Ismaili Jamatkhana and Centre, as part of the Canadian Centre for Diversity's "Discover Religious Diversity: Full day guided outing" program.

I have had the opportunity to conduct numerous sessions for the Canadian Centre for Diversity. This session however was special for two reasons. First, many of the participants are classmates of my daughter, Nafeesa, who is a student at Lord Beaverbrook. The second is that a number of students are graduates of R. T. Alderman Junior High School. R. T. Alderman was the first school that I attended when I immigrated to Canada in 1975. I had the opportunity to share with the students what it was like to be the only visbile minority student in that school and what my personal experience has been as a Muslim of South Asian culture growing up in Calgary.

At the end of the tour, we presented to the students a copy of Dictionary of Islam and The Ismailis: An Illustrated History for their school library.

I am grateful once again to Kari Grain (Regional Program Coordinator for Calgary) for providing me this opportunity to participate.

The following is a description of the Canadian Centre for Diversity's "Discover Religious Diversity: Full Day Guided Outing" program from their website:

"Canada has a great diversity of faiths and religions but most of us are barely acquainted with them. So, in a single day, we take students to three houses of worship where they learn about the history, customs and traditions of each religion. Interactive questions and answer sessions are part of each visit and a brief concluding session led by Centre staff."