Hate-spewing preacher Wissam Haddad’s sword post ahead of court battle with Jewish leaders
Hate preacher Wissam Haddad has ramped up threats on the eve of his courtroom battle over anti-Semitic slurs, displaying an image of a sword as he warns: ‘We are not going to come unarmed.’
Hate preacher Wissam Haddad has ramped up threats on the eve of his legal battle against Australia’s peak Jewish body, warning in a video “we are not going to come unarmed, we’re going to fight them with everything that we have,” followed by the image of a sword.
The video has been condemned by Jewish community members who believe it is an incitement to young radicals to commit violence, with Mr Haddad set to appear in the Federal Court on Tuesday to defend claims that he breached vilification laws over his sermons asserting Jews are “vile” and “treacherous” people.
The provocative post comes as radical American Islamist Sheik Ahmad Musa Jibril exhorts his followers around the world to help fund Mr Haddad’s defence, with a radical Salafi account linked to Sheik Jibril claiming the Sydney-based cleric is “one of the most targeted men in Australia by the disbelievers”.
Mr Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, is being sued by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry over allegations that he breached the Racial Discrimination Act through his sermons in the wake of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.
Mr Haddad or speakers at his Bankstown-based Al Madina Dawah Centre have called Jewish people “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, recited parables about their killing, and said people should “spit” on Israel so its citizens “would drown”.
In most cases, Mr Haddad has claimed that he was referring to or reciting Islamic scripture.
In a new video, Mr Haddad declares that he has “no problem facing the Jewish lobby … but they are the ones dragging us to court. So we’re not going to come unarmed. We’re going to fight them with everything that we have.”
At that point the image of a sword appears on screen and Mr Haddad continues: “But if this fighting means that it brings some sort of strength to the Muslim community, and it teaches a Muslim community that we should no longer be bullied.”
The image of the sword is then replaced with a raised fist.
“Isn’t it about time that somebody fights back? Isn’t it about time that somebody stands up to these bullies?
“And this is Alhamdulillah (praise be to God) something that I’m personally willing to do.”
The sermon appears to be one Mr Haddad delivered last month but the violent imagery has been newly added.
A Jewish community source told The Australian it was his view that Mr Haddad’s use of a sword was summoning his followers to join in a fight – “not a battle of ideas, but a physical battle”.
“He’s positioning it as an act of Islamic duty, a religious war between Muslims and Jews, which makes it even more alarming and chilling. He doesn’t have mainstream support in his own community, but it has the potential to incite young radicals to commit violence. It’s extremely dangerous.”
Mr Haddad’s GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $18,000 although it is still short of its $25,000 target.
The exhortation by Sheik Jibril to his tens of thousands of followers to help fund the case comes as an update by the organisers on the weekend declared “This is the silence before the storm” and asked Allah to “make us victorious”.
Sheik Jibril, an extremist Michigan-based cleric who preaches an ultraconservative Salafist brand of Islam, has called on American Muslims to wage jihad against the “infidel West” and has previously used his platform to call on young people to join the ranks of ISIS.
A survey conducted by The International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence in 2014 identified Sheik Jibril and Australian preacher Musa Cerantonio as the most influential online cheerleaders for Western foreign fighters serving with Islamic State.
A convicted fraudster who spent eight years in prison, Sheik Jibril was then the most “liked” personality on Facebook among the foreign fighters they tracked and was being followed by 60 per cent of foreign jihadists in Syria on Twitter. Three days ago he urged his followers to support Mr Haddad, writing “may Allah protect him”.
The Sheik Jibril-linked account Salaficentral also urged followers to donate to Mr Haddad’s GoFundMe campaign, claiming the legal case by the ECAJ was “about silencing Muslims from standing for justice”.
“Abu Ousayd is probably one of the most targeted men in Australia by the disbelievers – he’s a thorn in their agenda. They’ll do whatever they can to throw the book at him and find a way to imprison him,” the post states, amid a series of false claims concerning the case.
“We asked him directly about the conditions if he refuses to attend their courts, and he confirmed that he would be arrested for contempt of court and likely jailed. The intelligence services will do everything they can to silence him.
“The conditions set on him include inviting them to the mosque for public gatherings, attending their prayers and places of worship publicly, and never mentioning the words ‘Jew’ or ‘Israel’ in a critical way – otherwise, he faces further imprisonment and a hefty fine.”
The ECAJ is simply seeking an injunction requiring declarations that Mr Haddad and the Al Madina Dawah Centre contravened section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, injunctions requiring the speeches to be removed from the internet and that they not publish similar content in the future.
ECAJ is not seeking any damages or monetary compensation.
ECAJ’s alleges at least five sermons by Mr Haddad contained almost 40 defamatory imputations such as Jews were “mischievous and shifty … wicked people who love money, and abuse the weak and target Muslims”.
Justice Angus Morkel Stewart has previously said that “upon quick reading” the case against Mr Haddad was “damning”, and pushed back on an argument that certain sermons were protected by section 18D of the Racial Discrimination Act which provides exemptions to 18C for public interest rhetoric, given it runs counter to his own judgment in the successful case of Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi against One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.
Mr Haddad’s most recent sermons were first revealed in a series of stories by The Australian and prompted investigations from both NSW police and the Australian Federal Police.
He is considered a “central figure in the Salafi-jihadi network in West Sydney and throughout Australia” by the Middle East Research Institute and has boasted of his friendship with notorious terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar while expressing support for terrorist groups including Islamic State and al-Qa’ida.
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