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The Ismaili leaders are super influential and have connections everywhere. They are megawealthy socialites. Basically they wanted the TLDs so they knew who to talk to to make it happen.

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I used to have a close Ismaili friend and saw some of the inner workings of the community. They're extremely tight knit due to historical persecution (similar to Judaism). They are very well connected and are always secretly funding schools and factories for communities in need all over the world. The charity and service are never boasted about outside the religious circle to keep eyes off of them. However, they do a fair amount of boasting internally just because they are very proud of their community.

Much respect for Ismailis.

Right. I wanted to send a pic of the previous Aga Khan to someone recently and the first pic that came up was him hanging out with King Charles. IIRC their HQ in Portugal has a similar semi-autonomous status to the Vatican inside Rome.

The British monarchy and the Aga Khan have very strong associations. Weird trivia: the right for the Aga Khan to call himself "His Highness" is by title granted by the British monarchy, like some kind of weird accreditation.

https://www.royal.uk/news-and-activity/2025-02-10/the-king-i...

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