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Haddad serves as a preacher and educator at the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Bankstown located in Sydney’s south-west, which he co-established and manages.
Justice Angus Stewart announced his ruling in the Federal Court in Sydney, determining that Wissam Haddad violated the Racial Discrimination Act. Source: Supplied
Peter Wertheim and Robert Goot, representing the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), brought the case against Haddad over a series of lectures and sermons he gave at the centre in November 2023, which were subsequently posted online.
Justice Stewart rejected Haddad’s defence and said his comments “made perverse generalisations against Jewish people as a group”.
Haddad has been ordered to pay the applicant’s costs, remove the offending material, and refrain from similar activity.
‘Vindicated’ by the judgment
Wertheim emphasized that the issue was not a discussion about the political critique of the Israeli government or Zionism, but noted that such discussions are “completely within the realm of regular conversation”.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) took Wissam Haddad to the Federal Court over a series of lectures delivered at the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Sydney in November 2023. Source: AAP / Dan Himbrechts
“The court has ordered that Mr Haddad and the centre … be restrained from republishing comments that contain a whole series of imputations about Jews, including the infamous one about Jews being descended from apes and pigs,” Wertheim said.