Extremist cleric apologises for calling Jews ‘bloodthirsty monsters’
Sheikh Ahmed Zod delivered the sermon in a Lakemba Mosque in 2023, prompting ECAJ to lodge a racial hatred complaint against him before the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Sheikh Ahmed Zod has apologised to “the Australian Jewish community” for preaching during a sermon that Jews “loved to shed blood” and accused them of raising their children on “violence, terrorism and killing”.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) lodged a complaint against Sheikh Zod in March 2024 before the Australian Human Rights Commission for the 2023 sermon he delivered entitled “The truth of the Jews and their characteristics”. It was spoken in Arabic at the Masjid As-Sunnah, a Mosque in Lakemba NSW, and included a series of derogatory and dehumanising language and stereotypes against Jews.
During the sermon, Sheikh Zod preached that Jews were “bloodthirsty monsters” who “ran like rats” from the October 7 Hamas attack.
“Who are these terrorists … these monsters … who have removed mercy from their hearts,” he preached.
“These (people) are the Jews, not all of them, but most of them. The most important characteristic of the Jews is that they are thirsty for bloodshed … another is betrayal and treachery.”
He has now apologised “unreservedly and unconditionally” to ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim, deputy president Robert Goot, and “the Australian Jewish community”.
“I deeply regret the way I framed my comments and understand how they could be interpreted as targeting Jewish people as a whole,” said Sheikh Zod.
“I did not intend to make such a sweeping generalisation. I did not seek to harm Jewish people based on their race or religion. This is not an excuse but an explanation to hopefully assure you that I will not repeat these comments.”
Wertheim welcomed Sheik Zod’s admission of wrong-doing and said he hopes that it will serve as an example for the future about the limits of freedom of expression.
“In Australia, that freedom does not extend to the public vilification of people who come from a different ethnic background or choose to follow a different faith, or no faith,” said Wertheim.
“The same limitations apply to expressions of political opinion, including commentary about overseas conflicts.
“We hope that the resolution of this complaint will serve as a reaffirmation of the principle that Australia is a safe place for people of all backgrounds, and no place for the kind of immoderate and at times antisemitic rhetoric that we have witnessed in recent times.”
The terms on which the complaint has been resolved include an undertaking by Sheikh Zod not to repeat these or similar statements in the future.
However, according to The Australian, as recently as last Friday, Sheikh Zod issued a prayer to the people of Gaza at the end of his sermon, for Allah to “deal with the tyrants and the oppressors” and to “kill them all, and leave none of them behind”.
Wertheim said if Sheikh Zod failed to adhere to the terms on which the complaint has been resolved, “we will have no hesitation in availing ourselves of legal remedies to enforce them.”
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