Sydney Muslim cleric revels in being ‘deliberately provocative’ and must be restrained by law, court hears

Wissam Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, at the federal court in Sydney, where he is being sued over lectures in which he is alleged to have maligned Jewish people. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

A Muslim cleric accused of a series of antisemitic slurs during lectures at a Sydney prayer centre must be restrained by law from making similar statements in the future because he has refused to apologise and revels in being “deliberately provocative and inflammatory”, the federal court has been told.

Wissam Haddad – whose legal first 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 – subsequently broadcast online – in which he is alleged to have maligned Jewish people.