Excerpt:
The first museum in North America devoted to Islamic art will help promote an understanding of a religion that is based on tolerance and pluralism, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday at the new landmark's opening ceremony.
The Aga Khan — spiritual leader of the Ismaili community — joined Harper in Toronto to celebrate the opening of his namesake museum, the $300-million Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili Centre.
"We celebrate today, then, not only the harmonious meeting of green gardens and glass galleries, or of Italian marble and Canadian maple. We rejoice above all in the special spirit which fills this place and gives it its soul," Harper said.