April 4, 2024
Police say they are unable to lay charges against a radical Sydney cleric who warned of violence and "men who love death" if Islam was attacked because legal advice had determined the threats didn't constitute a criminal offence.
On Wednesday, NSW police confirmed that a Friday sermon by Bankstown-based cleric Abu Ousayd also known as Wissam Haddad that promised "humiliation" and "men who love death" if Allah was attacked did not breach state hate-speech provisions.
"If you attack Allah, if you attack our prophet, our religion and our fellow brothers and sisters, and if you attack our lands, you are going to be met with men who love death more than you love life," he said, calling on followers to be "worshippers by night and warriors by day".
A police spokesman confirmed the rhetoric was not a criminal offence. "At this time, review of the sermon and legal advice indicate that the content does not amount to an offence under section 93Z of the Crimes Act 1900," he said.
Section 93Z makes it an offence to publicly threaten or incite violence on the grounds of race or religion.
Mr Ousayd's Friday sermon said Muslims were "being killed, oppressed, at the hands of the worshippers of cows, rats and monkeys . (If you) abandon jihad, Allah will send upon you humiliation and he will not remove it." The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has lodged a vilification complaint against Mr Ousayd and the Al Madina Dawah Centre at the Australian Human Rights Commission, with its co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin saying inaction risked "legitimising" the preacher's comments.
"These sermons that reach devoted followers and impressionable young minds online are not merely a threat to the Jewish community but also to our democracy and our society," he said.
"The fact no one has been successfully prosecuted under existing laws despite the regularity of vicious sermons since the October 7 attacks shows the system isn't working and requires comprehensive reform." Since November, The Australian has revealed how: Mr Ousayd has given a raft of anti-Semitic sermons at his Al Madina Dawah Centre; Referred to Jews as "descend ants of pigs and monkeys", and peddled anti-Semitic tropes; Urged people to spit on Israel so "Jews would drown" and recited parables about their killing; Is a principal of an Islamic Saturday school and runs a registered charity.
Independent NSW upper house deputy president Rod Roberts said he felt the "frustration" of the Jewish community and that the "system was letting them down".
Federal opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said the authorities should "stop going through the charade" of considering charges if they had no intention of doing so.
