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An Islamist preacher has been prohibited from making offensive statements about Jews in public following a significant decision regarding his speeches, where he labeled them as despicable and deceitful.
Wissam Haddad, a cleric from the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Sydney, faced allegations of racial discrimination tied to a series of intense sermons, which have accumulated thousands of views on the internet since November 2023.
In the speeches, the preacher, also known as Abu Ousayd, referred to Jewish people as vile, treacherous, murderous, and mischievous.
Justice Angus Stewart on Tuesday found the speeches were disparaging and likely to offend, insult, harass or intimidate Jewish people.
“The imputations include age-old tropes against Jewish people that are fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic,’ Stewart said.
“They make perverse generalisations against Jewish people as a group.”
Throughout this pivotal case examining the boundaries of religious speech and hate speech, two Jewish leaders contended that the online talks were derogatory and had the potential to incite violence against Jews.
They sought the removal of the published speeches, a public declaration of error and an order restraining Haddad from making similar comments in future.
Haddad denied breaching anti-discrimination laws and claimed he was delivering historical and religious lectures on events from the Koran to contextualise the war in Gaza.
He said he was speaking about “Jews of faith” rather than ethnicity while trying to explain that “what the Israeli government is doing to the people of Gaza” is “not something new”.
Ruling against the preacher would be tantamount to restricting the free exercise of religious expression, Haddad’s lawyer argued.
Stewart rejected the defence on Tuesday and ordered Haddad to remove the speeches.
He directed the preacher not to make any further comments that convey similar disparaging imputations.
Haddad has also been ordered to foot the legal bill for Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim and deputy president Robert Goot.
The preacher did not appear in the Federal Court when Stewart handed down his decision, arriving late.
His speeches were delivered during a time of heightened sensitivity after the designated terror group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking Israeli retaliation that has left the Gaza Strip in turmoil.
The reporting of the war prompted questions and concerns from Haddad’s congregants and at the same time left Jewish Australians feeling unsafe, the court was told.
