Forgive Americans for having less than a benign view of the modern Muslim world. From the jihadist attacks of 9/11 to Iranian mullahs smearing the US as “Grand Satan,” along with serial beheadings, stabbings, kidnappings and mass shootings fueled by calls of “Allah Akbar” – one asks, where are the moderate voices, the imams urging peaceful coexistence with nonbelievers?

I’m drawn to the question following the death this month of Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, better known as Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader of an estimated 15 million Ismaili Muslims. He was 88. I had the fortune of working with the Aga Khan – and his followers – for four years and learned that along with their devout faith Ismailis (a subset of the Shia branch of Islam) are enlightened, tolerant, hard-working and very much of this world and the communities in which they live.

My connection goes back to 1980, when I began working for a PR agency representing the Aga Khan Foundation and Prince Karim personally. A colleague described Ismailis as the Jews of Islam – well educated, mercantile and business-oriented, and spread across an international diaspora. Although many trace their origins to the Arabian Peninsula and Iran, Ismailis have no single nationality. Adherents claim a direct 1,400-year descendancy from Ali, nephew and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, making them the only Shiites to have “a living, hereditary Imam.”

They’ve also faced persecution – in the early 1970s Uganda’s Idi Amin expelled tens of thousands of them (along with other Asians) for being economic “bloodsuckers” at the expense of Black Africans. Many resettled in Canada, Britain, the US and elsewhere. Wherever they dispersed, Ismailis assimilated, rather than living segregated lives prone to disaffection and radicalization.

Prince Karim was an amalgam, born in Geneva to Pakistani-Italian diplomat and socialite Aly Khan (famous for marrying actress........

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