ABU GHRAIB, Iraq, Sept 24 (AFP) - A leading Sunni Muslim cleric accused Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi of betraying his people and called on the country's nascent security forces to rebel, in a vitriolic Friday sermon.
"It is strange to hear someone announce that Iraq cannot achieve democracy without the Americans," Sheikh Abdel Salam Kubaisi told about 300 faithful outside the gates of Abu Ghraib prison.
He said Allawi, "who has abandoned Islamic, regional and patriotic principles, forgets that America is the one that slaughtered its native Americans and killed millions of Red Indians.
"He forgets that America is the first to have made mass graves by bombing Hiroshima."
Kubaisi, whose Committee of Muslim Scholars represents 7,000 mosques around Iraq and holds sway with some elements of the Sunni insurgency, lashed out at Allawi for his visit to Washington where the premier thanked America for ousting Saddam Hussein's regime.
The white-turbaned cleric, whose group has positioned itself as the voice of Sunni Muslims, referred to Allawi in the rankest of terms.
"We live in strange times. As practically everyone is condemning America and its conquering of Iraq, but we see a small bit of scum fighting the current, calling America a liberator and friend."
The cleric then defended people's right to fight against the US-backed government.
"Let it be clear for everyone that the traitors ... cannot give orders. To die for the country, to be a martyr is not death. Death is for those who betray their religion, soil, honour and country."
The cleric urged the Iraqi national guard and police to disobey the interim government and the Americans.
"Today Iraq is facing the biggest conspiracy, a conspiracy to eliminate its most faithful people, all the faithful whether Muslim or Christian, Arab or Kurd or Turkmen ... That is why the Americans have formed the Iraqi national guard and police.
He said the fledgling security forces are "just a cover in order to sabotage Iraq ... Because of this I call for the leaders of the national guard and police not to obey their orders which are meant to make them the first spear, the first arrow as the criminal of the century Bush says."
The cleric called on all Iraqis "to unite in facing the terror and fear" unleashed by the US-led invasion of Iraq.
"We possess all the elements of unity that enable us to defeat the Americans."
The cleric hedged his incendiary words at the end of his speech, telling the crowd he was in favour of peaceful resistance.
Abu Ghraib is the site of the prisoner abuse scandal that has tarred America's reputation in the Arab world.