Militant Cleric Denounces Mubarak and U.S. : Message: Abdul Rahman, in West Covina, calls for ‘Divine law’ in Egypt, assails American influences. He also talks of his own martyrdom.

Declaring that he feels “the end of my life and the time to meet Allah is near,” militant Egyptian Sheik Omar Abdul Rahman issued a message Tuesday to mosques around the world, assailing both the regime of Hosni Mubarak, and American influences over Egypt.

In the statement issued on the last day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan from West Covina, where he has been staying, Abdul Rahman called on Egyptians to put the country under “Divine law,” and declared that even if he is martyred, “there are signs of hope” for a new day in Egypt.

Addressing Egyptians as “my family, my people” in a spirit “mixed with my tears and I wish it was engraved with my blood,” the sheik said it is time to reject Egypt’s “secular constitution,” its “usury-based economy,” its “irresponsible media” and its “humiliating blind following of the arrogant international policy” of the United States.

“No, we will never fight in the way (manner) of America and its allies. . . . Those unbelievers fight in the way (manner) of everything other than Allah,” Abdul Rahman declared in the three-page message, mentioning “the destruction of Iraq” and “the disgrace of the Muslims in Bosnia.”

“No, we will never take orders from the United States, the one that claims that Iran and Sudan sponsor terrorism!” he said.

The sheik, explaining last week that he is using the United States as a base to urge the overthrow and killing of Mubarak, intends to appeal to the courts against efforts of the U.S. government to deport him from this country. He has been in California the last two weeks, according to aides, to visit various mosques and preach to the faithful.

Persons who are suspects in the Feb. 26 bombing of the New York World Trade Center worshiped at a New Jersey mosque where Abdul Rahman preaches, but he has denounced the bombing and asserted he does not know the suspects.

Tuesday’s message also decried “the hand of the Zionist enemies who promote the satanic lie that the real danger is coming from the (Muslim) fundamentalists.”

“So, what about the vicious Zionists?” he asked. “And what about the criminal Serbs? Are they the angels of peace? Or are they the messengers of love?”

While declaring that Mubarak and his “12 years of martial laws and terrorism” will not last, Abdul Rahman also suggested that exile, prison or slaughter may await himself as well in the near future.

“If I am exiled, I will remember that the beloved Prophet Mohammed (may peace be upon him) was also exiled,” the sheik said. “And if I am jailed, I will remember that the honorable Prophet Joseph (may peace be upon him), son of Jacob (may peace be upon him), was also jailed. And if I am to be slaughtered, I will remember that the kind Prophet John the Baptist (may peace be upon him) was also slaughtered.

“This is my message,” he said. “These are my beliefs and trust to mankind which I have chosen to carry and to live with. And thanks to Allah, I honor the trust. So choose for yourself from now, before it is too late. This life is the time of choice.”

To the Egyptian people, he said: “I hope that my blood flows on your ground in the way of Allah.” But, he added, in the future, “surely we will meet, we will meet on the doorsteps of the Islamic state, or together we will knock on the gates of the eternal peaceful home of Paradise.”

The sheik later returned to Jersey City, N.J., and appeared at a prayer meeting in a public park.