Court Finds Islamic Preacher Breached Racism Laws With Anti-Jewish Sermons

In a landmark case which pitted Australia’s tough anti-hate-speech laws against freedom of religion, the court has muzzled the mullah.

Wissam Haddad leaves the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney on July 1, 2025. Two leaders of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry sued the Islamic preacher for racial discrimination over allegedly anti-Semitic sermons. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

A known Islamic preacher has been told to stop making disparaging remarks about Jews after a court rejected his defence that no Jew could be offended because his lectures were delivered in private to a purely Muslim audience.

Wissam Haddad—whose actual name is William, but who also goes by Abu Ousayd—regularly lectured at the Al Madina Dawah Centre in Sydney.