I was privileged to attend Festival Day of the Sydney Muslim Writers Festival (SMWF) on Saturday 18 April, at the Bryan Brown Theatre and Function Centre in Bankstown.

I was accompanied by my good friend Brother Mostofa Alam (founder of datapalmtree.com.au, a publishing house dedicated to supporting young Muslim authors) and for both of us, it proved to be an unforgettable day.

I have been a professional writer for over 35 years, and I can say without hesitation that SMWF 2026 was unlike anything I have ever attended.

It was also one of the finest events I have experienced in six years as a Muslim – and that is saying something.

Earlier, the opening Night of SMWF on Friday 10 April at the Parramatta Town Hall was by all accounts a wonderful evening of conversation and performance to launch the program.

To launch Festival Day, Canterbury-Bankstown Mayor Bilal El-Hayek delivered a warm and generous opening address that set exactly the right tone for what lay ahead – inclusive, proud and celebratory.

It was a fitting welcome for a festival of this significance, held right in the heart of his community.

I also want to pay sincere tribute to the people who made all of this possible.

Professor Mehmet Ozalp – founder and Executive Director of ISRA, the Islamic Sciences and Research Academy – is also the driving force behind the Sydney Muslim Writers Festival and the establishment of the Museum of Islamic Art, Australia.

To build institutions of this calibre, all in service of the Muslim community and Australian cultural life more broadly, is a genuinely remarkable achievement.

Professor Ozalp and the entire ISRA team deserve nothing but admiration.

The opening keynote panel, “Our Words, Our Worlds: First Nations, Truth Telling and Forgotten Causes”, brought together some brilliant writers and thinkers to reflect on words as acts of resistance, remembrance and responsibility.

It was a stunning way to begin the day and the standard never dropped from there.

Around 400 attendees filled the venue, and the energy was palpable throughout.

I attended three forums across the Saturday, and every single speaker was exceptionally knowledgeable, speaking with emotion, humour and from the heart.

For me, the afternoon brought a very special thrill.

As AMUST’s community journalist, I had previously written about two accomplished Muslim children’s authors – Br George Green and Sr Annie McCann – and after meeting them during the morning, I was absolutely delighted to find them on the same panel after lunch.

To finally meet them in person – and then watch them speak with such warmth, insight and genuine passion about writing for young readers – was one of those moments that reminds you exactly why you do this work.

The festival also featured a dedicated ISRA Children’s Library space where young readers could enjoy storytelling sessions, reading activities and creative exercises, alongside a vibrant marketplace of books, art and community initiatives.

The queues for book signings stretched long and enthusiastically throughout the day – a beautiful testament to how deeply this community cherishes its many writers and their stories.

The festival’s theme, Beyond Noise, was about filtering out the excess of opinions in modern discourse to amplify voices that are constructive, authentic and rooted in knowledge – and that intention was felt in every session and in every conversation.

In a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly reshaping how words are produced and consumed, SMWF 2026 highlighted the fact that some things can never be replaced.

There will always be a place for beautifully written, printed and crafted books – for the human voice, the lived experience, the carefully chosen word.

No algorithm can replicate what I witnessed and what I felt that Saturday in Bankstown.

My sincerest congratulations to Professor Mehmet Ozalp, the ISRA team and everyone who contributed to making this festival the exceptional event it was, including but not limited to partners and sponsors like Think Studio, City of Parramatta and Canterbury-Bankstown Councils, the NSW Government and Barakah Brew.

In a few short years, you’ve built something truly special for the Muslim community and for Australian literature as a whole.

I will most certainly be back.