A total of $10 million has been pledged by State and Federal Governments to provide added impetus to the foundation and start-up of the research centre. Key goals for the Centre include the development of intercultural knowledge,
understanding and reciprocal respect between Islamic and Western communities across nations. The Centre will fulfil the vision of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who has been committed to supporting the goals of peace and reconciliation through dialogue and diplomacy throughout his career.
Speaking at the launch, Hawke said finding solutions to the increasingly hostile tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim worlds was one of his greatest wishes. "UniSA has accepted the challenge to set up the Centre, which will have a new focus on understanding the triggers for the prejudices that present barriers to dialogue," Hawke said. "I know we have a lot of support from friends around the world for this initiative and I believe it is time to harness our intellectual resources, along with empathy and goodwill to do something to achieve long-term harmony and understanding."
The establishment of the Centre is being led by Professor Pal Ahluwalia, UNESCO Chair in Transnational Diasporas and Reconciliation Studies with support from the UniSA's Hawke Centre. Prof Ahluwalia's appointment to the UNESCO Chair, the only one held in South Australia, was also announced at the launch of the new Centre. "The Centre for Muslin and non-Muslim Understanding will be an international hub for new thinking around what often appear to be implacable issues," Prof Ahluwalia says.
"In a post-September 11 world, the West has been bombarded with a single narrative about the Muslim world - one of threat. Similarly, in Islamic countries, notions of Western societies are often uni-dimensional and negative. "Part of our research will focus on the role of mass communications, media and new technologies in influencing stereotypes and prejudices and acting as a vehicle for the broad distribution of divisive information. "We also want to research the sociological factors that influence prejudice.
Poverty, social exclusion, poor access to education and information can have a significant impact on the development of misinformation and a breakdown of trust, communication and understanding. These factors are as important to the debate as religious difference." Prof Ahluwalia says while the Centre will operate in an international context collaborating with other centres internationally, the Australian historical experience of migration and of policy formation around race and culture would offer some unique perspectives on questions of resettlement, social and cultural divides.
"Some historians have suggested that Australia's first Muslim contact came with the Macassan traders in the 17th century and there were Muslims among the early fleet settler and convict populations. "Larger numbers came to SA in the 1860s from Afghanistan as camel experts to work the camel trains and a year later they built Australia's first mosque at Marree. "This engagement is part of Australia's story - Muslim engagement with non-Muslim cultures is part of our world story. Our aim is to work to define a positive future for that engagement."
Editors note: This final paragraph gives a clue as to the motives of those seeking to establish this research centre. It is a subtle attempt by the academic community to give Islam equality with Christianity in the history and heritage of our nation. If that can be established and accepted within the minds of Australians generally it gives added impetus to re-writing our Christian history to at least be only one facet of our national heritage and another step in de-Christianising our history and heritage thus strengthening the argument for us to be accepted as a multi-faith or multi-religious, rather than a Christian, nation.
Source: Australian Prayer Network