AGA Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaelite Muslims, dies at 88 years old

AGA Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaelite Muslims, dies at 88 years old


AGA Khan, a spiritual leader of Ismaelite Muslims best known to Canadians for his longtime friendship with the Trudeau family, died on Tuesday in Lisbon, at the age of 88.

The news was announced in the social networks of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) on Tuesday afternoon.

Endowed with a vast fortune that made it one of the richest men in the world, Aga Khan, born in Switzerland, has been, since the late 1950s, the spiritual leader of around 15 million Ismaelian Muslims Nizârites, a branch of Shiite Islam which considers it as the direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

Relations between Aga Khan and the Trudeau family date back to the early 1970s, when Canada, under Pierre Elliott Trudeau, welcomed thousands of Ismaelite refugees expelled from Uganda.

Thus begins the friendship between the young Justin Trudeau and the Aga Khan, who will be years later at the origin of one of the first scandals of the young liberal.

In December 2016, Justin Trudeau and his family went to the private island of Aga Khan in the Bahamas, for a vacation all paid costs, including helicopter transport.

Justin Trudeau had pleaded that his relationship with Aga Khan dates back decades and that they were close friends, but the ethical commissioner had judged that their friendship was not personal enough to justify such a gift.

The Prime Minister, who later had recognized certain hooks for the rules of ethics, had to apologize.

Related Articles