Sydney Islamist cleric loses hate speech case over Jewish slurs

Australian Community Media

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 Federal Court not to repeat perverse and racist tropes used in a series of fiery sermons from 2023. Vision courtesy: AAP

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00:00Do you stand by everything you said in those sermons?

00:02Yeah, free Palestine.

00:03A Sydney-based Islamist cleric has been ordered to publicly promote a federal court ruling

00:09that found he spread anti-Semitic hate speech.

00:13Wissam Haddad used racial slurs against Jewish people in fiery sermons following the October 7 Hamas attacks

00:20that a judge ruled were perverse generalisations that vilified the Jewish community at large.

00:26He called Jews treacherous, mischievous and vile, rats and cowards.

00:31I have found that the series of lectures titled The Jews of Al-Medina

00:36conveys disparaging imputations about Jewish people

00:40and that in all the circumstances we're reasonably likely to offend, insult, humiliate and intimidate Jews in Australia

00:49and that the imputations were conveyed because of the race or ethnic origin of that group.

00:55He ordered the cleric to pin a corrective notice to his website and social accounts for 30 days,

01:01warning the posts must not be buried.

01:04Haddad must delete the lectures, avoid repeating such remarks and pay legal costs.

01:10As of Thursday afternoon, 17th of July 2025, Haddad had not complied with the ruling.

01:16That is all the more so because the lectures were delivered at a time of heightened vulnerability

01:21and fragility experienced by Jews in Australia following the attack by Hamas on 7 October 2023,

01:29Israel's bombardment and blockade of Gaza in response

01:33and resultant solidarity protests and other actions in Australia.

01:38You

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