Last Thursday 27 October 2022, I attended the day long Muslim Mental Health Conference in Bankstown, while I am neither a mental health professional nor I suffer from mental health problems, I was indeed impressed by the diversity of topics and speakers that were to be covered during the Conference.
(See report on the Conference on Page 9 (of this November issue or online)
There are a number of taboo topics that Muslims in general, family members and our leaders including Imams tend to avoid. Mental health and psychology itself are two of these and others include dealing with homosexuality, pornography, suicide, alcohol and drug use.
Jihad Dib MP, NSW State member for Lakemba was asked to say a few words as invited guest at the start of the Conference before the formal presentations.
He said, “I am amazed at how well the Muslim Community has developed during the last 15 or so years, that day in and day out we are holding and participating in such unique events and we have AMUST everywhere reporting on this for the wider knowledge, appreciation and benefit to the greater Australian society.”
While I appreciated his recognition of our efforts and indeed we have been highly encouraged, it is true that AMUST has tried its best to cover community events and activities amongst diverse communities and in all places, as much as possible.
However AMUST has limited resources and it can not cover and report first hand on all events and therefore relies on the organisers of events to upload reports, text, images and photos on AMUST online self-submission system for prompt editing, layout and publication in the shortest time possible.
This unique volunteer base system seems to be increasingly working well and we have developed a team of more than 100 volunteer writers Australia-wide as well as from overseas reporting and writing for AMUST.
This November issue of AMUST # 104 constitutes the 100th issue since rebranding of AMUST as an English only full colour publication more than 8 years ago being published with utmost regularity and punctuality.
With the end of all COVID-19 restrictions, the Muslim Community is buzzing with activity with the organisation of events even post Ramadan and after the two Eids.
This issue itself is a showcase covering a large number of diverse events, reports and opinions from all sections of our communities held in mosques and Islamic centres, community halls, parliament houses and engagement within the Muslim community as well as with the wider Australian society.
We were indeed forced to substantially increase the number of pages for this issue in order to accommodate most of the articles and some which we could not include in the monthly edition have been published on-line and will be promoted through AMUST Weekly subsequently this month.
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