DEFENDING ISLAM

By William Dowell

After an eight-month trial, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman now sits in a Manhattan jail awaiting a jury's verdict in the case accusing him of plotting a religious war against the U.S. He and nine co-defendants are charged with conspiring to blow up the World Trade Center and other New York City landmarks. In a rare interview last week, Time correspondent William Dowell talked with the blind Egyptian cleric about the trial and his anger at the U.S.

TIME: What effect will this trial have on U.S. relations with the Muslim world?

Rahman: In general, everyone feels that it is Islam which has been put on trial. And that the U.S. wants to use this case to put Islam down.

TIME: Do you think the trial has been fair?

Rahman: There is no doubt that we have gone through an unfair trial.

TIME: What has been unfair?

Rahman: First of all, I was charged with a radical interpretation of Islam. When I asked to bring Islamic experts to the trial, our request was denied. The prosecutor, who knows nothing about Islam, became the source of Islamic interpretation and Islamic ideas.

At the beginning of our case, one of the defendants wanted to negotiate with the government without our knowledge. Legally, the judge should have informed our lawyers.

During the selection process of the jury, there were no questions to find out whether the jury was racist.

TIME: How do you feel about the press and media coverage of the trial?

Rahman: The media and the press in general in the U.S. are racist. They are very nationalistic, and they are controlled. It is clear that the media are against Islam. During the trial, anything that was favorable to the defense was never published. Anything against the defendants was amplified and covered comprehensively.

TIME: Do you consider the U.S. an enemy?

Rahman: When I came here, I was fleeing oppression. Now I am facing the same oppression. I came here to avoid prison, and I was put in prison. I came here to smell freedom; I found it to be suffocating here.

TIME: The Islamic term jihad can refer to a spiritual struggle or physical combat. How do you see it?

Rahman: Self-defense is legal in all religions. This is called jihad in Islam. The West has misinterpreted this concept. People who are defending their lands are called terrorists. Of course, this interpretation is useful to the West. It legitimizes attacks against any country in the Third World. Americans call them terrorists, and they take it to the U.N. in order to take legal action. And the U.N. does whatever the U.S. tells it to do.

TIME: How do you feel about a car bomb that kills people who are simply walking on the street?

Rahman: If the action is an aggression against others, it is not good. If it is taken during wartime and people are hurt and have to face violence, it is an act of exchanging violence.

TIME: Why do you oppose the Egyptian government of President Hosni Mubarak?

Rahman: Hosni Mubarak rules Egypt by fire and iron. He has turned Egypt into a police state. The emergency law in Egypt has been in effect since the first day Mubarak took power. Mubarak knows that if he tried to rule Egypt under civil law, he would not remain in power for one hour.

Egypt's prisons are filled with Muslims who have been sent there by Mubarak. Torture is routine. People are exposed to electric shocks. They are attacked by dogs in rooms. Prisoners and their wives are raped. They are hung from the ceilings by their feet. Nevertheless, the West loves Mubarak. It is having an affair with Mubarak. Love blinds people.

TIME: Why does the West love Mubarak?

Rahman: Mubarak looks after Western interests. He is the obedient dog of the West.

TIME: You are believed to have pronounced the fatwa for the assassination of Anwar Sadat, and yet you were acquitted in Cairo. How did that happen?

Rahman: How can you be sure that I issued the fatwa? When this was discussed in an Egyptian court, the judge listened to all sides, and he agreed that killing Sadat did not need any fatwa. Sadat was not a Muslim. He made a mockery of Islam and its principles. There were many reasons behind his assassination. It did not require a fatwa to do that.

TIME: What will happen to you if you go back to Egypt?

Rahman: I was arbitrarily accused in the U.S. It will not be strange if the same thing happens in Egypt.

TIME: What do you think of Emad Salem [the informant who is the prosecution's chief witness]?

Rahman: He is Satan.