The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ), the peak body rep­res­ent­ing the Jewish community nation­ally, has expressed “outrage and disgust” at a series of state­ments reportedly made by self-described Islamic preachers in Sydney including Wissam Haddad, “Brother Ismail”, “Brother Mohammed” and Sheik Ahmed Zoud.

“On any view, these state­ments are grossly antisemitic”, said ECAJ President Daniel Aghion. “One can only imagine the entirely jus­ti­fi­able outcry if any such rank vili­fic­a­tion were expressed from a Synagogue pulpit about Muslims. Yet this repeated hate-mongering against Jews over the last three months has elicited only a shameful silence from the Aus­trali­an National Imams Council, many other faith community leaders, and from other parts of civil society. They should know better.”

“The hate preaching must stop now,” Mr Aghion said. “There are multiple ethnic and faith com­munit­ies in Australia and the last thing we need is for our peaceful and cohesive society to be ruined by the import­a­tion into Australia of the hatreds and violence of overseas conflicts. Gov­ern­ments bear the primary respons­ib­il­ity of main­tain­ing peace and security in the community by taking decisive action to stop anyone seeking to set Aus­trali­an against Aus­trali­an”.

Mr Aghion also said that the Jewish community had been “deeply dis­ap­poin­ted and dis­tressed” that no action had been taken in response to serious incidents of hate speech since October 7. “If existing laws are not fit for the purpose of dealing with this hate-filled bile, and the stoking of violence, then the law should be reformed as a matter of urgency. Taking legal action dis­cour­ages this com­pletely unac­cept­able behaviour, and supports Australia’s future as a peaceful and cohesive society.”

Mr Aghion stated that the Jewish community will itself take legal action. “Whilst we still have hope that the relevant author­it­ies will act on these matters, our organ­isa­tion will pursue the legal remedies that are available to us against those who have preached hate and promoted violence. We must protect our own community. In doing so, we will be pro­tect­ing all Aus­trali­ans from racist behaviour.”