Sydney-based Al Madina Dawah Centre cleric Wissam Haddad has been accused of racial discrimination during a series of fiery sermons from November 2023, which have racked up thousands of views online.
He was quizzed in the Federal Court today about a 2022 lecture in which he said that Christmas greetings were worse than congratulating someone for murder.
The preacher denied the speech was “highly offensive” and that he delighted in media controversy by repeating it on his social media page.
Peter Braham SC, acting for two Jewish plaintiffs, made those accusations and suggested it was one “highly offensive” example of how Haddad previously sought to amplify his views.
“Everything that happens at the Al Madina Dawah Centre is designed and calculated for public consumption and to create or attract controversy,” Braham said.
Haddad’s barrister has argued the allegedly anti-Semitic speeches were intended for a small private Muslim audience and weren’t reasonably likely to attract the attention of the broader community.
“That is absolutely not how this man has run his life,” Braham said.
Haddad told the Federal Court he wasn’t responsible for uploading the allegedly racist videos to social media, but he knew they were being recorded and would be published online.
He agreed that recordings of his lectures were likely to appear on YouTube, Rumble, Telegram and SoundCloud in 2023.
His lawyer argued the allegedly racist lectures have been selectively edited and would not have been seen by Jewish people if not reported on by the media.
But Braham said the speeches did not need to be immediately witnessed by Jewish people to be viewed as threatening, humiliating and denigrating.
Haddad, who is also known as Abu Ousayd, denies breaching anti-discrimination laws and claims he was delivering historical and religious lectures on events from the Koran to contextualise the war in Gaza.
He is being sued by Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim and deputy president Robert Goot, who want the published speeches brought down and Haddad banned from making similar comments.
They claim the speeches are offensive and intimidating, and could normalise anti-Semitic prejudices or encourage violence towards Jewish people.
“Making derogatory generalisations, calling Jews a vile and treacherous people, calling them rats and cowards … are things which I think would be experienced by most Jews as dehumanising,” Wertheim told the court on Tuesday.
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