Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Bait-ul-Salam mosque

Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (12:50): The Bait-ul-Salam mosque, which translates to the ‘house of peace’, is an Ahmadiyya Muslim Association mosque in Langwarrin. It is a place that I have visited in the past and that I look forward to visiting again in the future. Many colleagues here would have seen recently on the news that this place was damaged quite severely, with up to 12 people coming through, putting ladders through the window and damaging this mosque. As I said, when its name translates to ‘house of peace’, it is very sad to see here in Victoria this happening and this still occurring due the ignorance of some people.

The mosque’s imam, Wadood Janud, lives downstairs with his family. He was roused that evening by the noise, and he tried to scare off the offenders. The imam stated in relation to seeing what had happened:

The praying area is a place where you don’t even wear your shoes—that was really painful …

The Ahmadiyya Muslim Association president, Osama Ahmed, and the imam stated that the community welcomed the young offenders to come back and learn about their faith and what they do. The imam said:

Most of the members of our community escaped persecution in other parts of the world and they moved here so they could live their life peacefully and worship the faith they want to worship …

I will be more than happy to show them around and answer any questions they may have.

One of the greatest things I have done is to learn and be educated by going to some of these mosques, as well as the Islamic museum, to understand the Muslim faith more. I invite more people to go and learn about that so we have less of this ignorance in our community.