MAKKAH, Feb 1: The imam of the Khana-i-Kaaba lashed out at Israel, condemned the "occupiers in Iraq" and called for Muslims to unite against those who want to oppress them in Eid-ul-Adha sermon on Sunday.

"In Palestine the Muslim suffers under oppression and Al-Aqsa mosque buckles under occupation ... how can we live peacefully while our holy lands where prophets have passed are being tarnished by a band of infidel Zionists?" said Sheikh Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Aziz al-Sudais.

"They (Israelis) are multiplying their aggression everyday by building new settlements and separating walls." Sudais warned Muslims in his message, which was broadcast on Arab satellite television stations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, that the enemies of Islam are everywhere.

Sudais lamented that Iraq "bleeds and that the occupant has ransacked it and raped its riches." "I pray that our brothers in the nation of the Rafideen (Mesopotamia) be governed according to the sunna (Islamic rules)," added Sudais.

The US-led coalition occupying Iraq has promised to hand over power to an interim Iraqi government by June 30. Sudais called on Muslims everywhere to unite "to defeat all their occupiers and oppressors." He said Islam is "misrepresented by Western media which associate it with terror."

In contrast to Sudais' fiery rhetoric, the message from Saudi Arabia's ruling family marking the Eid was a lot more subdued and brief. -AFP