Wissam Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, argues speeches in which he is alleged to have maligned Jewish people were delivered to a Muslim audience
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A Sydney Muslim cleric being sued for alleged racial discrimination has told the federal court no Jewish person could be offended over a series of lectures in which he described Jewish people in the seventh century as “mischievous”, “treacherous” and “vile” because the lectures were delivered to a private Muslim audience.
Wissam Haddad – whose legal name is William but who is also known as Abu Ousayd – is being sued by two senior members of Australia’s peak Jewish body, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), over a series of lectures he gave in Bankstown in November 2023 and subsequently broadcast online, in which he is alleged to have maligned Jewish people.