by Bonnie Collings
The Warragul Mosque's recent open day was a step towards strengthening interfaith and community collaborations.

About 1000 people came together for a day of community engagement, education and entertainment for the mosque open day.
Located at the former St Andrew's Presbyterian Church building on the corner of Victoria St and Albert St, the Warragul Mosque has been holding prayer services since the beginning of January.
The mosque is run by the Baw Baw Islamic Network Australia Incorporated (BINAI), a non-profit association dedicated to nurturing and empowering the Muslim community in Gippsland.
As part of the Islamic Council of Victoria's annual mosque open day event, the Warragul Mosque opened to the public on February 15, providing a range of educational opportunities and community activities.
BINAI president Muhammad Pavel explained the process of establishing the mosque in Warragul.
"When I moved to Warragul, I saw that people had been praying at the community house," he said.
"It was less than 10 people, and over time I saw it grow up more than 50. During Ramadan we had permission for women to come in. But at other times because there were so many people, women wouldn't come in because we couldn't provide them enough space."
As the group began to outgrow the community house, the search began for a new location to accommodate everyone.
"The community house was a very welcoming space and the other groups there were very welcoming," he said. "The only challenge we had was finding a booking sometimes because it is heavily used by other community groups.
"We've always seen this (old church building) on the market. We had a look and we fell in love, and that's how it started."
Mr Pavel said since the mosque opened, he'd seen an increase in the number of community members praying together.
"Friday (Jummah) is similar to mass on Sunday or the Sabbath, we normally have 70 to 80 people including women.
"We have also found a lot more Muslim community members than we used to have back there (at the community house), because they know there's a mosque here now, and they can look it up on Google.
"They can find it more easily, even I used to get confused about where to pray at the community house."
According 2021 Census data, 192 people in Baw Baw Shire identified as Muslim.
Mr Pavel said the majority of people attending the Warragul Mosque were from the Baw Baw Shire area but sometimes people visited as they travelled through from Melbourne.
"I think we all feel more connected to the area," he said. "We feel like we belong here."
While it was a small committee group of six people who worked to obtain the mosque space, Mr Pavel said it was the Muslim community who helped transform the building into a mosque.
"Pretty much everything you see here (in the mosque) has been donated (by the Muslim community), the sound system, the carpet, the bookshelves," Mr Pavel said. "We basically created a wish list of things to make it more like a mosque, and people started donating."
One of BINAI's goals in establishing the Warragul Mosque was to promote education and understanding in the community.
"Our hope is that people will be more accepting," Mr Pavel said. "Prejudice really comes from not knowing...it's basically second hand information that people get.
"Faith is a very strong form of belief, and with every belief comes bias. Everyone has biases, that's fine, it's just about being aware of them and seeing other people as fellow human beings. If you strip down everything, what really binds us together is our humanity.
"We certainly hope that people will come in here and have a chat with us, that was part of the reason why we had the open day."
Mr Pavel said another goal was to create interfaith education opportunities with local faith groups and schools.
"My daughter goes to St Paul's, and there's a policy that Christian studies is mandatory and from my perspective it's important for (my daughter) to understand what her friends believe in," he said. "But at the same time, it is also important for us to provide an opportunity for her friends to understand what she believes in. Those are the opportunities that have opened up (since the mosque opening)."
Looking into the future, Mr Pavel said a long-term goal for BINAI was to strengthen interfaith and broader community collaborations.
"The mosque is a community space, ideally what we'd like to see is the community coming here together for events and activities and for community services to be offered out of these premises," he said. "I think both for the Muslim community and the broader community (a goal) would be working together. There is no us and them, we all want the same thing. There are more similarities than differences."
Mr Pavel said the mosque open day "exceeded expectations in every way", providing opportunities for all community members to ask questions and engage.
"We were thinking if we had over 100 or 200 (attendees), that's a win," he said. "There were around 1000 people. I have never heard so much buzz in a space before, it was quite amazing."
"It was so great to see the community come together to show their support."