Overview

• The lawsuit alleges breaches of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act after sermons in November 2023 that described Jewish people as “vile,” “treacherous” and “cowardly.”
• The hearing opened on June 10 before Justice Angus Stewart with the uncil of Australian JAustralian Jewry seeking orders to remove online recordings and bar future public dissemination of similar content.
• Haddad’s defence argues the lectures were delivered in good faith as religious and historical discourse and claims that enforcing section 18C would infringe constitutional protections for the free exercise of religion under section 116.
• Both sides plan to call lay and expert witnesses, including theology professor Gabriel Reynolds for the ECAJ and Sheikh Adel Ibrahim for Haddad’s defence.
• Legal experts say the outcome could set a key precedent on the boundary between hate speech laws and protected religious expression in Australia’s multicultural society.