Wissam Haddad escalates violent rhetoric on eve of hate speech verdict

A landmark court ruling on Tuesday will determine whether cleric Wissam Haddad can continue his anti-Semitic sermons, amid moves to repeal tough new hate speech and protest laws.

Wissam Haddad. Picture: NewsWire

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Jewish community leaders are waiting nervously to find out whether hate preacher Wissam Haddad will be allowed to continue his anti-Semitic attacks, with the Federal Court to deliver a landmark ruling in the vilification case against the radical cleric amid moves by NSW crossbenchers to repeal new hate speech and protest laws.

On Tuesday, judge Angus Stewart will hand down his verdict on whether Mr ­Haddad breached section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act in sermons asserting that Jews were “vile” and “treacherous” people.

Mr Haddad or speakers at his Bankstown-based Al Madina Dawah Centre in southwest Sydney 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 his defence to the claim brought by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Mr Haddad has claimed he was referring to or reciting Islamic scripture in sermons he made in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attacks.

Mr Haddad has escalated his violent rhetoric as the decision approaches, invoking the Koran in a sermon posted to social media about swords being raised against “Ahl al-Kitab” (the People of the Book, primarily Jews and Christians) “until they pay the Jizya” (a tax paid by non-Muslims living under Islamic rule in return for protection).

Executive Council of Australian Jewry deputy president Robert Goot, ECAJ co-chief executive Peter Wertheim and Simone Abel outside the Federal Court. Picture: John Feder

“As for the words of the messenger … when he said ‘I was sent with the sword’, it means that Allah sent him as a caller to ­Tawhid (the oneness and uniqueness of Allah) with a sword, after inviting the people to be a witness to Allah with evidence that whoever does not respond to the invitation of this Tawhid, through the Koran and its evidences is therefore called to Islam with the sword”, Mr Haddad said.

The post suggests he is deliberately using the violent imagery as a provocation.

“We are on the topic of swords, and the topic angers the Kuffar (disbelievers) … and in fact, angering them is a type of Ibadah (worship; acts done to seek the pleasure of Allah)”, Mr Haddad says in the video.

An earlier video featuring ­images of an Arabic sword, in which Mr Haddad warned that “we are not going to come unarmed”, was condemned by Jewish community members as an incitement to young radicals to commit violence.

In an early hearing, Justice Stewart said “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 that provides exemptions 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 leader, Pauline Hanson.

A video released by hate preacher Wissam Haddad warning ‘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. Picture: Instagram

If Justice Stewart decides in favour of Mr Haddad, many in the Jewish community fear the case could unleash a storm of anti-­Semitic rhetoric from radical clerics, at a moment when hate speech laws are being attacked in the NSW parliament as the product of a “fake” terror plot.

Cross-benchers in the NSW parliament have moved to repeal three hate crime bills passed earlier this year, claiming the government misled MPs about the “fabricated” Dural caravan terror plot in order to push through the legislation.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has suggested he would not support a repeal of the legislation but the Coalition lent its weight to establishment of an upper house inquiry into when Premier Chris Minns had become aware the Dural caravan incident was not a terror plot.

Abu Ousayd, also known as Wissam Haddad, a Sydney-based Islamic cleric. Picture: YouTube

One senior Jewish community leader told The Australian the laws against inciting hatred and prohibiting protest outside places of worship “had nothing to do with the Dural caravan plot”.

“We’re dismayed that some in the state parliament are trying to use the fact that the Dural plot was hatched by hardened criminals to whitewash the violent extremism that has plagued our state since the days of ISIS and Man Monis, and to undermine necessary laws that protect our state from the threat of terrorism,” he said.

“Without these laws, communities are left to fend for themselves and their only redress would be under section 18C, which is currently being tested in the Haddad case.”

The ECAJ is 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.

It is not seeking any damages or monetary compensation.

Mr Haddad’s anti-Semitic 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.