Court Hears Sydney Islamic Preacher Delivered Antisemitic Sermons

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A Sydney-based Islamic preacher, Wissam Haddad, has been accused of making “dehumanising” and “threatening” comments towards Jewish people, allegedly violating Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act, as a federal court judge has been informed.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), the leading Jewish body in the nation, initiated the case in the Federal Court. The issue revolves around a series of allegedly provocative sermons delivered by Haddad following Hamas’ October 7 2023 attack on Israel.

Haddad disputes the allegations and his defense claims that his statements are protected under free speech, contending that they were made within a context of political and religious critique of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and his assertions of what he calls a “Muslim genocide in Gaza”.

Testifying on the opening day of the four-day hearing, Peter Wertheim, ECAJ co-CEO, testified that Haddad’s speeches included language that “dehumanises” Jewish individuals.

Wertheim highlighted that Haddad made “derogatory generalisations, labeling Jews as vile and treacherous, comparing them to rats”.

“Using dehumanising language against Jews constitutes antisemitism,” Wertheim stated.

“Such remarks would likely be perceived by most Jews as dehumanising.”

Three men wearing suits walking outside.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry deputy president Robert Goot and ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim are involved in the case. Source: AAP / Bianca De Marchi

In opening remarks, Peter Braham SC, the counsel representing Wertheim and the ECAJ, took the court through excerpts of five speeches or lectures made by Haddad, also known publicly as Abu Ousayd, at the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Bankstown, Sydney in November 2023.

Braham told the court Haddad’s speeches contained “antisemitic tropes” about Jewish people, that “they’re mischievous, they’re a vile people, that they’re treacherous, and that they control the media and banks”.

In speeches played to the court, Haddad was heard to refer to Islamic religious texts and repeat a passage saying: “There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him”.

Of this, Braham said: “It’s threatening, it’s a call to arms.”

Wertheim’s legal team argue Haddad’s comments breach Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act and must prove Haddad’s acts were reasonably likely to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” Jewish people because of their race or ethnicity, and that the acts were done “otherwise than in private”.

Braham argued Haddad’s acts were public as he spoke to a congregation of at least 400 people and was being filmed, with the videos later posted online.

He also referred to Haddad’s own acknowledgement that his allegedly inflammatory content was being reported in the Australian media in November 2023.

“Today, I’m going to be a masjid [mosque] shock jock,” Haddad said in one speech, in an extract read out by Braham in court.

Braham argued this makes it “patently clear [Haddad] knows he’s being listened to by the mainstream media, he knows he’s being recorded”.

Braham argued that Haddad was “aware his words were being heard and engaged with by the mainstream media,” suggesting that his remarks about Jewish people were not private.

A split image of a man with a dark beard and wearing a black skull cap. He is speaking in both images.

Wissam Haddad denies he breached the Racial Discrimination Act. Source: AAP, Supplied / SUPPLIED/PR IMAGE

‘Not about antisemitism’, says defence

Andrew Boe, the counsel representing Haddad, told the court in opening remarks that this was “not a case about antisemitism”, adding that Justice Angus Steward should not take a “narrow interpretation” of the law.

Boe argued the Racial Discrimination Act “must leave room for the legitimate participation in robust discourse … even and especially in a charged environment” such as that which followed the 7 October Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza.

Boe told the court videos played to the court and experts of Haddad’s speeches read to the court by Braham were presented in a “piecemeal way”.

Defence raises Hanson v Faruqi

A key difference, Boe said, was that Hanson’s statements were overtly public, having been posted on X (formerly Twitter), and her comments were seen by people “unguided by any other source”.

In contrast, Boe said, Haddad was speaking to a “Muslim audience” and Jewish Australians only saw Haddad’s remarks through the mainstream media, or on a social media outlet “dedicated to publishing antisemitic content”.

Haddad is expected to give evidence and be cross-examined on Wednesday.

The trial is scheduled to run until Friday.