Jewish community leaders have celebrated their vindication after an Islamist preacher was ordered not to repeat “perverse” and racist anti-Semitic tropes.
Sydney-based Al Madina Dawah Centre cleric Wissam Haddad made the comments in a series of fiery sermons from November 2023, which racked up thousands of views online.
In the speeches, Mr Haddad – who is also known as William Haddad or Abu Ousayd – variously referred to Jewish people as “vile”, “treacherous”, “murderous” and “mischievous”.
He was sued by Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim and deputy president Robert Goot, who claimed the lectures were offensive and could incite violence towards Jews.
Justice Angus Stewart ruled in their favour on Tuesday, finding the speeches contained disparaging imputations that were likely to offend, insult, harass or intimidate Jewish people.
He concluded the speeches contained “devastatingly offensive” imputations that were based on the race or ethnicity of the Australian Jewish community.
“The imputations include age-old tropes against Jewish people that are fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic,” Justice Stewart said.
“They make perverse generalisations against Jewish people as a group.”
He said the racist remarks were intimidating and harassing because of the history of persecution of Jewish people and the heightened sense of insecurity because of the war involving Israel in Gaza.
Outside court, Mr Werheim and Mr Goot said they were vindicated by the legal win that they took as confirmation the days of targeting Jewish people with impunity are “long gone”.
“No community in this wonderful country should be dehumanised in the way Mr Haddad treated us,” Mr Goot said.
“Freedom of expression should not be abused by the promotion of hateful anti-Semitism and those who wish to do so should know that conduct shouldn’t be tolerated by us.”
During the landmark case testing the limits of religious expression and hate speech, Mr Haddad’s lawyer argued ruling against the preacher would be tantamount to restricting the free exercise of religious expression.
But Justice Stewart rejected Mr Haddad’s defence he had been acting in good faith while delivering historical and religious lectures on events from the Koran to contextualise the war in Gaza.
He said there was no basis for the preacher to believe the remarks were the teachings of Islam and he was not persuaded Mr Haddad had not also made them to stir up controversy.
The lectures were not religious but instead “little more than bigoted polemic(s)” that had little basis in Islam, the judge said.
“This case was not about freedom of expression or freedom of religion, it was about anti-Semitism and the abuse of those freedoms to promote anti-Semitism,” Mr Wertheim said outside court.
Mr Haddad, who arrived in Federal Court midway through the delivery of the judge’s decision, remained silent with crossed arms as his lawyer spoke outside court.
“Mr Haddad maintains the sermons, delivered in the context of religious instruction and based on scriptural references, were never intended to insult any group in Australia on the basis of their ethnic identity,” his lawyer Elias Tabchouri said.
The preacher was ordered to remove the lectures and not to repeat similar racist statements about Jewish people in public.
He will also have to pay the legal bill for Mr Wertheim and Mr Goot, which is estimated to be six figures.
A separate interview and sermon didn’t amount to racial vilification because they would be understood as directed towards the Israeli army and Zionists instead of Jewish people generally, Justice Stewart said.
Mr Haddad’s speeches were delivered after Hamas, designated by Australia as a terror group, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
The onslaught sparked Israeli retaliation that has left Gaza in turmoil and tens of thousands of civilians dead.
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