MELBOURNE — The all-female, mostly Muslim staff at a cafe in Melbourne’s inner north scrambled to find extra seating. It was not a late lunch rush on a typical Sunday afternoon in June, but rather the most well-attended session of Speed Date a Muslim since it began at the end of 2015.

The free monthly event, in which the public is invited to ask frank questions of Muslim women, does not involve any actual dating, but it is meant to be informal and informative — a forum for confronting fear, opening conversations and breaking down stereotypes while breaking bread.

“Nothing is off topic,” said Hana Assafiri, the founder of Speed Date a Muslim and the owner of the cafe, Moroccan Deli-cacy, where the event takes place. “Nothing is off the table.”

Across the Western world, Muslim communities are exploring new ways to engage with non-Muslims who are questioning the role of Islam. In the United States, Muslim leaders seeking to distance their faith from the violence of the Islamic State have held question-and-answer sessions at public libraries and in the classrooms of Christian universities. In Europe, secular Muslims are also increasingly speaking out, reminding critics of the diversity within their ranks.