November 14, 2023
A Sydney cleric with ties to terrorists has doubled down on his recitation of Islamic parables about “killing Jews towards the ends of times”, saying it was the word of Muhammad and would “come to pass”.
Wissam Haddad, known as Abu Ousayd, who runs Al Madina Dawah Religious Centre in southwest Sydney, also compared the coverage of his sermons to Nazi newspapers during World War II “before the Jewish genocide” – a comparison slammed by political and religious leaders.
This publication last week revealed Mr Haddad’s sermons – where he said if Muslim countries spat on Israel, the “Jews would drown” – and how he was operating under an alias.
Mr Haddad used to run the Al Risalah Centre frequented by terrorists Mohamed Elomar and Khaled Sharrouf, of whose friendship he had boasted.
After The Australian visited the centre on Friday, and was told to leave by Mr Haddad, the cleric, who is subject to an ongoing NSW police investigation, encouraged Muslims to “soldier on” until Palestine had been “cleansed of Zionist filth”, standing by previous comments.
“Towards the end of times, when the Muslims will be fighting the Jews, the trees will speak,” Mr Haddad said on November 4, citing Islamic parables. “They will say ‘Oh Muslim, there is a yahud (Arabic for Jew) behind me, come and kill him’.”
Mr Haddad said given it came from scripture, he “believed every word”.
“And if he (Muhammad) said it, it will come to pass,” he said.
Mr Haddad then compared media outlets to Nazi propaganda. “The people doing the dragging (of the centre) are Zionist-backed agencies. The Nazis did the same to the Jews before the (Holocaust). The media is preparing the same ground, but this time for Muslim genocide.”
NSW police confirmed the centre was being investigated and the AFP has referred one of the sermons to an anti-terror squad.
Mr Haddad called other Islamic organisations “spineless leaders” and compared them to “jellyfish”.
The Australian Federation of Islamic Council, Australian National Imams Council and the Lebanese Muslim Association were all contacted to condemn the centre’s rhetoric.
ANIC and AFIC failed to respond, the LMA declined to provide comment.
On Monday, this publication revealed how the Minns government was considering strengthening section 93Z of the Crimes Act, which outlaws religious vilification – making it illegal to “threaten or incite violence” against someone based on their race or religion, among others. No case has been successfully prosecuted under the reforms since its 2018 introduction. “If you’re going to have a law saying racial vilification and hate speech is not allowed, then it can’t be toothless,” Premier Chris Minns said.
Its possible strengthening was welcomed by Jewish representatives. “You only need one person to hear such a tirade to decide to act in accordance with this speech and attack those who are deemed ‘enemies’,” said Dr Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, a civil rights organisation fighting anti-Semitism. “It is time for governments to examine how laws can be applied to deal with such prejudice and if they are inadequate, to change them.”
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson urged authorities to do more.
“It’s very troubling that a week on from these radical sermons first being revealed, it appears that no action has been taken,” the senator said.
“I don’t understand why state and federal governments aren’t moving faster to crack down on this inflammatory rhetoric – the book should be thrown at these extremists, but so far it seems like they are getting away with it.”
