Islamic cleric Wissam Haddad fronts court as Jewish community’s milestone case begins

Lawyers representing Australia’s peak Jewish body say their case against Wissam Haddad would seek to ensure the ‘dignity’ of the community.

Wissam Haddad arrives at Sydney’s Federal Court, where he is fighting a lawsuit by leaders of Australia’s peak Jewish body, who allege he vilified their community across multiple sermons. Picture: NewsWire

Lawyers representing Australia’s peak Jewish body have said their case against Sydney cleric Wissam Haddad would seek to ensure the “safety and dignity” of the community as a potentially groundbreaking legal case kicked off.

It comes as Mr Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, recently took to social media to dismiss allegations he had ties to the al-­Muhajiroun terrorist network, and its high-profile leaders Omar Bakri and Anjem Choudary, despite recent correspondence with them.

On Wednesday, Mr Haddad fronted Sydney’s Federal Court with his solicitor, Elias Tabchouri, who said his client would be “defending the matter” but they “remained committed to concil­iation” with the applicants, two of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s leaders.

Judge Angus Stewart – who recently ruled that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson racially vilified senator Mehreen Faruqi – said “upon quick reading” the imputations alleged by the lawsuit were “damning” and provisionally listing a four-day hearing from June 10.

The Australian has covered since 2023 Mr Haddad’s sermons at his Al Madina Dawah centre in Sydney’s southwest and how the ECAJ had filed vilification complaints at the country’s human rights body.

When mediation at the Australian Human Rights Commission failed, the ECAJ’s deputy president, Robert Goot, and co-chief executive, Peter Wertheim, filed court proceedings against Mr Haddad and the centre.

They allege a slew of sermons given by Mr Haddad or hosted by the centre, which were posted online, racially vilified their community under Section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Among other things, Mr Haddad, or speakers at his Al Madina Dawah Centre, have allegedly called Jewish people “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, recited parables about their killing, described them as “treacherous ­people” with their “hands” in media and business, encouraged jihad, and urged people to “spit” on Israel so Israelis “would drown”.

In most cases, he has claimed he was referring to or reciting ­Islamic scripture.

Peter Braham, representing the applicants, told the court that “time was important”, given Mr Haddad’s alleged conduct was in 2023. “We want this matter heard as soon as it can be,” he said, adding that “practical relief” was being sought in removing the sermons from the internet.

“One of the problems with (Mr Haddad’s) conduct is that he was making insulting comments about Jews as a race and people … (which) challenged the community’s sense of belonging and safety.

“And in light of current events (the Middle East conflict, anti-Semitism), relief is not being sought for a purely theoretical purpose but to perform the function of the Racial Discrimination Act … and by declaring (Mr Haddad’s) conduct as unlawful.”

Although Mr Haddad’s defence won’t be filed until February – his barrister, Andrew Boe, alluded to possibly calling Islam experts – Mr Braham said they intended to “robustly” challenge that the cleric’s words “flowed” from scripture. “We would challenge that (Mr Haddad’s words) were of conventional religious belief or coming out of established religious texts,” he said.

Peter Wertheim.

Robert Goot.

Mr Boe said it was “unclear” who actually uploaded the sermons onto the internet. “It’s one thing to have the videos, it’s another to post those (online),” he said, adding that he could call on experts to speak on the “providence” of Mr Haddad’s comments. “(Mr Haddad’s words) were in English, intended to educate the audience of the speeches … (with) words in the Koran and other scripture.

“(There’s) work to be done contextualising the circumstances of the words spoken.”

Mr Boe said the applicants’ material totalled more than 120 pages, and that possible defences could be that the comments were made privately, or under section 18D, which provides an exemption under 18C if conduct was a matter of public interest.

Justice Stewart said if any implied political freedom defence was being sought – such as Senator Hanson had – he would “unlikely be persuaded” that he “was wrong (about that judgment)”.

In that matter, Justice Stewart found that only a narrow range of political speech was captured under 18C, which outlaws conduct that is likely to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate, based on race, colour or national or ethnic origin”.

He found that the minor restriction on political speech was “justified” to protect from racial hatred and that it did not impede the functioning of Australia’s system of government.

Mr Haddad’s appearance on Wednesday comes as he scrambled to distance himself from any links with al-Muhajiroun, a terror group active in Britain.

A poster for a 2022 conference, shared on social media by Haddad, showing him and Anjem Choudary, a convicted British terrorist.

On Instagram in November, Mr Haddad revealed he had given an interview to the ABC’s Four Corners program, whose questions centred around alleged links with al-Muhajiroun leaders Bakri and Choudary.

Choudary was sentenced by British authorities in July to life imprisonment for terror offences while Bakri was released from a term of imprisonment in Lebanon in mid-2023.

Al-Muhajiroun has been described as a more radical offshoot of Hizb ut-Tahrir and some of its British members have committed terrorist attacks in London.

“(The ABC) were asking questions about me being related to people in the UK, Choudary, Bakri,” Mr Haddad said.

“They’re trying to paint a ­picture and say that I am al-­Muhajiroun in Australia.”

Mr Haddad does have links with Bakri and Choudary, however. In August 2023, he published a YouTube video that included a lengthy personalised audio message from Bakri, who addressed Mr Haddad as his “dear brother”.

A video, posted by Haddad to YouTube, where he uses an apparent personalised audio message from Omar Bakri, the founder of Al-Muhajiroun.

In 2022, he headlined multiple online conferences alongside Choudary and Abu Izzadeen, part of a different banned terrorist organisation in Britain, including one advocating for the release of Muslim prisoners.

The Australian is not suggesting Mr Haddad is part of any group, rather reporting his own denials of any alleged links, while noting his 2023 video with Bakri and previous involvement with Choudary, both of which are in the public domain.

Separately, Mr Haddad said the Addas Israel Synagogue firebombing could be a “false flag”, saying it was “plausible” it was intentionally burnt down to “draw public sympathy”.

The respondents will file their defence on February 7 and the applicants their response on February 21, before a case management hearing on February 28 where the provisional June 10 trial could possibly be formalised.