Tuesday, 5 March 2024

 Belinda WILSON (Narre Warren North) (13:25): Last Sunday mosques and Islamic centres across our state opened their doors as part of Victoria’s annual mosque open day, a celebration of our state’s amazing diversity. Victorians were invited to visit their local mosque, where they could tour the space, see some arts and crafts sessions and connect with the local Muslim community. In my electorate of Narre Warren North and indeed across the south-east of Melbourne we have an incredible diverse Muslim community, and a local mosque is such an important part of all of that.

The first stop of the day for me was the Emir Sultan Mosque in Dandenong, which I visited with the member for Dandenong, Minister Williams, and Lee Tarlamis in the other place, a member for Southern Metro.

I want to say a huge thankyou to Ali, Osman, Merve Dogan, Saliha Kaya and Roqia Ibrahimi, who showed us around the mosque and gave both the minister and me a beautiful headscarf, which we really appreciate. Thank you for everything you do in the community. A special shout-out to Sema Secen and Salam Masri, who also helped out on the day.

Our second stop of the day was the Hallam mosque in the heart of my electorate with the federal member for Bruce Julian Hill. We met up with our friend and community leader Mohammed Janif, Javid Khan and the newly appointed president Fahim Akbar. I also want to welcome the new imam at the mosque Sheik Zulfiken and his lovely wife.