The Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry (ECAJ), the peak body rep­re­sent­ing the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty nation­al­ly, has for­mal­ly lodged com­plaints with the Aus­tralian Human Rights Com­mis­sion (AHRC) against two Islam­ic preach­ers in west­ern Syd­ney over speech­es that were made late last year, record­ings of which have been uploaded online.

The com­plaints allege that the speech­es includ­ed deroga­to­ry gen­er­al­i­sa­tions about Jew­ish peo­ple, such as descrip­tions of them as “mon­sters”, “crim­i­nals”, “blood­thirsty”, raised on “ter­ror­ism, vio­lence, and killing”, a “vile peo­ple”, and a “treach­er­ous peo­ple”, and claims that “their hands are in every­where in businesses…in the media”.

The com­plaints have been made under the pro­vi­sions of Part IIA of the Racial Dis­crim­i­na­tion Act which pro­hib­it offen­sive behav­iour based on racial hatred. The com­plaints are against:

(a) Wis­sam Had­dad and Al Mad­i­na Dawah Cen­tre Incor­po­rat­ed; and

(b) Sheikh Ahmed Zoud and Awqaf Aus­tralia Benev­o­lent Fund Lim­it­ed.

The ECAJ is seek­ing, among oth­er things, that the speech­es be removed from the inter­net with a pub­lic apol­o­gy, and that the respon­dents pro­vide bind­ing com­mit­ments that sim­i­lar con­duct does not occur in the future.

ECAJ co-CEO, Peter Wertheim, who is one of the com­plainants, said:

“We are tak­ing this action not only to defend the hon­our of our com­mu­ni­ty but also to pro­tect the future of Aus­tralia as a peace­ful and social­ly-cohe­sive soci­ety. Our coun­try has pro­vid­ed a won­der­ful home to peo­ple of many dif­fer­ent faiths and eth­nic back­grounds. For the most part we all live togeth­er in har­mo­ny with mutu­al respect where every­one is free to observe their faith and their tra­di­tions. One of the rules of Aus­tralian mul­ti­cul­tur­al soci­ety is that we do not bring the hatreds, prej­u­dices and big­otry of over­seas con­flicts and soci­eties into Aus­tralia. It is tru­ly regret­table that gov­ern­ments and law enforce­ment agen­cies have failed to show prop­er lead­er­ship to enforce this rule, and that it has fall­en to our com­mu­ni­ty to stand up to the hate­mon­gers in our midst. We will do this regard­less of the human and finan­cial cost. The issue is sim­ply too impor­tant for Australia’s future.”