Gov. Rick Perry joined the 49th descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Prince Karim Aga Khan, in celebrating the opening a new Ismaili Muslim worship and cultural center Sunday just south of Houston.

Aga Khan is considered a progressive Muslim leader of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims. The new Houston center houses the national offices of the Ismaili Council for the United States and will serve about 15,000 Ismailis in Houston.

"9-11 has scarred America, but not just America. It has scarred the Islamic world," Aga Khan, a Harvard graduate.

"The center will be a place of peace, humility, reflection and prayer. It will be a place of search and enlightenment, not of anger and of obscurantism," he said.

The $10 million center includes a community center, a prayer hall and classes for religious education. The Ismailis belong to the Shia branch, which is one of the two major sects of Islam. Sunni Muslims make up the other branch.