Islamist preacher unable to 'bury' anti-Semitism ruling

Perth Now

17-07-2025

An Islamist preacher who used harmful racial stereotypes about Jewish people in sermons will be forced to tell the world of his anti-Semitism through prominent online posts.
Sydney-based Al Madina Dawah Centre cleric Wissam Haddad was ordered by the Federal Court earlier in July not to repeat the perverse and racist tropes used in a series of fiery sermons from November 2023.
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".
Justice Angus Stewart found the sermons contained "perverse generalisations" against Jewish people and included racist, anti-Semitic tropes.
The judge on Thursday ordered the preacher "pin" or "feature" corrective notices describing the court's findings to the centre's website and social media pages on Facebook, Rumble, Instagram and Soundcloud.
He has been given 21 days to comply with the order and the posts had not been made as of Thursday afternoon.
Mr Haddad objected to prominently displaying the notices, saying this would go beyond what was ordinarily ordered by the courts.
Pinning the posts would be tantamount to promoting or advertising the findings, he said.
Justice Stewart ordered the notices to be pinned for 30 days, saying the requirement was not unduly burdensome and would stop them disappearing from view.
"It will prevent them from being deliberately buried by way of successive further posts," the judge wrote.
Promoting the notices was part of their objective, he said.
"The respondents promoted the unlawful lectures and it is not disproportionate to require them to promote the corrective notice in the relatively constrained manner described above as an appropriate form of redress," he wrote in his judgment.
The notice itself highlights the "unlawful behaviour based on racial hatred" of Mr Haddad and the centre.
The three lectures - titled "The Jews of Al Medina" and published on video hosting site Rumble - were reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate Jewish members of the Australian community, the notice says.
The lawsuit was brought 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 Jewish people.
The pair said they were vindicated by Justice Stewart's findings, saying no community in Australia should be dehumanised.
"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," Mr Goot told reporters after the judgment.
The cleric has been 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 in the six figures.
Mr Haddad's speeches were delivered after Hamas, designated by Australia as a terrorist group, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack sparked Israeli retaliation that has left Gaza in turmoil and tens of thousands of civilians dead.