Keysar Trad is the founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia and is the former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. He is also the former interpreter and spokesperson for (deceased) antisemitic terror supporter Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly (who I once dubbed “Catmeathead”).
Much like his former boss, Keysar is – how should I put it – a d*ck. He once wrote the following about Australia, the country that allowed him in from Lebanon:
“Our ideology is the best salvation for the people of Australia, and the people of the world in general. Yes, we are a threat to the culture of drunkenness, paedophilia, and mostly we are a big threat to the culture of ELITISM…In a way, they feel safe because of the quantity of water which surrounds this country, so they feel fortified behind this great body, it gives them a feeling of security. But the reality is, the land belongs to God, not to them, and if those foreigners, whom they fear as migrants are not permitted to enter as migrants, they will come as settlers, in numbers so large that they will not be able to process them, hold them, or stop them. What will they do then?”
And he claimed the Koran permitted a husband to beat his wife as a “last resort.”
Did I mention he also has a history of Jew-hatred?
In 2009, the New South Wales Supreme Court found that Mr Trad ‘incites people to commit acts of violence’, ‘incites people to have racist attitudes’ and is a ‘dangerous and disgraceful individual’. This stemmed from a defamation case that Mr Trad brought against Harbour Radio. In 2011, the New South Wales Court of Appeal overturned this initial ruling after Mr Trad appealed. But, late last year, that same court overturned its 2011 ruling, dismissing Mr Trad’s appeal and upholding the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the aforementioned circumstances. Mr Trad was also ordered to pay Harbour Radio’s costs in the appeals court.
Let me take a moment of the Senate’s time to detail the evidence that supported the courts’ findings. The courts based their finding that Mr Trad incites people to commit acts of violence on the following evidence: Mr Trad’s own website used to have a link to a website he touted as having ‘very good articles concerning Islam and Muslims’. But the courts found that this website held ‘significant anti-Semitic views’. The judge simply did not believe Mr Trad’s claims that he did not know about the nature of this website. In terms of his saying that the site had ‘very good articles’, court documents reveal that Mr Trad ‘agreed he had little choice but to concede that this was an endorsement of what was plainly a racist website.’ When he was interviewed by a journalist, Mr Trad said words to the effect of, ‘There are many Jews who question how many died in the Holocaust’, which the judge saw as ‘an attempt to diminish the significance of those events.’ In the end, both courts deemed that this showed that Mr Keysar Trad incited violence against Jewish people.
Both courts also agreed that Mr Trad incited people to have racist attitudes, given their previous conclusion that he had incited people to commit acts of violence due to his support for sources that were anti-Semitic. Justice McClellan said in the 2009 findings that he was ‘satisfied that the plaintiff does hold views which can properly be described as racist.’ He continued, ‘I am also satisfied that he encourages others to hold those views. In particular, he holds views derogatory of Jewish people.’
Trad was recently (re)appointed to the executive committee of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, the organization from which he was dumped in 2017 for his domestic violence comments.
A month ago, Trad posted a statement on behalf of his Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, condemning the Bondi attacks while extending condolences to the Jewish community:
The question is: is this a sincere statement from someone who has really changed since linking to that antisemitic website all those years ago? Or is this disingenuity from the same antisemite he always was?
The mountains of Israel hatred that Trad posts – like this video he posted on October 11, 2023 “sanitizing” Hamas –
indicate it is probably the latter. But the rank antisemitism of this post of his from just half a year ago seals the deal:
If the Australian authorities don’t act against Trad, at least we can count on karma:
Senior members of Australia’s most influential Islamic organisation are locked in a legal stoush after an allegedly violent altercation at their Sydney headquarters, sending shockwaves through its embattled leadership.
Australian Federation of Islamic Councils executive committee member Mohammed Berjaoui is facing a charge of common assault after he allegedly slapped across the face former AFIC president Keysar Trad, who had arrived for his first day back with the organisation since he was reappointed.
—
The AFIC said in an internal letter dated December 30 that it had stripped Mr Berjaoui of his executive committee and assistant treasurer roles following an alleged violent incident during a meeting that is now the subject of court proceedings and a restraining order.
The letter, signed by AFIC secretary Mahabub Ali, alleges Mr Berjaoui engaged in “violent inappropriate conduct” towards another executive committee member in the presence of senior AFIC officials during a lunch break for its board meeting.
“This matter is the subject of police proceedings, and a violence restraining order (sic) has been issued,” the letter states.
Sources have told The Australian Mr Trad was allegedly assaulted during the incident after a fiery verbal argument escalated inside the meeting. It is understood Mr Trad was struck in the face amid a personal dispute.
