Research
Diagnose social challenges and produce useful evidence for policy and practice.
About CCR
An Australian institution capable of working across difference.
The gap between community potential and civic participation is not a problem for one community alone. It is a shared Australian challenge, and a shared Australian ambition.
01 · Patronage and public trust
The Grand Mufti’s vision
Under the patronage of Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, Grand Mufti of Australia, the Centre for Cultural Relations is being developed as an institution for dialogue, research and civic cooperation.
The Grand Mufti’s public work has connected religious leadership with community service, interfaith and intercultural engagement, and the practical needs of Australian society. He is a trusted figure for the wider Australian society, NGOs and government institutions, and that trust gives CCR its starting point with communities, public institutions and international partners.
CCR is the institution implementing his vision of peace, dialogue, collaboration and social cohesion.
Recognised trust
Named among Australia’s most influential
In 2015 the Australian Financial Review listed Dr Abu Mohamed among the nation’s top covert power holders, alongside senior figures from government, security, business and public life.
03 · The institution
What the Centre for Cultural Relations is
An Australia-wide, intercultural and interfaith institution working at the intersection of scholarship, policy and community leadership. It turns vision, evidence and trusted relationships into practical public value.
CCR is non-partisan and open to people of all faiths and backgrounds. It engages governments and public institutions without becoming a political party, a lobby group or a substitute for existing representative bodies.
Dialogue
Create safe, serious spaces for communities and institutions to listen and work through disagreement.
Mediation
Develop professional, culturally informed ways to prevent and resolve conflict.
Collaboration
Turn relationships into practical programs, partnerships and shared capability.
How CCR fits
A platform that works with others, never in place of them
People should be able to belong without compromising their values or their identity.
CCR is driven by Muslims under the patronage of the Grand Mufti, but it faces outward: it is the Muslim community’s contribution to social cohesion and coexistence in the wider society.
That makes it distinct from its sister institution, the al nawawi centre, which serves the Muslim community internally through Islamic knowledge and education. CCR does not run a Shariah college or issue religious rulings. Where those are needed, it works with partners such as the al nawawi centre and the Australian National Imams Council.
CCR’s stakeholders are government and politicians, public institutions, NGOs and charities across Australia, and international research and policy institutes. It is built to feel at home anywhere Australians meet, from the middle of Sydney or Melbourne to Chester Hill.
07 · The platform
A meeting point between vision and implementation
The Grand Mufti provides public and community leadership. CCR provides the institutional platform through which that vision can be tested, organised and translated into practice.
The institution is being developed through religious leadership, policy strategy, research, community relationships and professional governance. Its credibility depends on bringing these capabilities together in a disciplined operating model.
Leadership
The founding team
A founding team leads the institutional design, coordination and implementation of CCR, turning a broad vision into a sequence of programs, partnerships, governance decisions and measurable results.
The measure of success: a trusted human vision becomes a working institution that communities collaborate through, governments understand, partners can support and future leaders can continue.