CAT STEVENS = TERRORIST?

(we have a lot to learn from Cat Stevens)

Flight diverted after singer found on list
Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, is denied admission into

United States
By LESLIE MILLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Maine on Tuesday when it was discovered passenger Yusuf Islam — formerly known as singer Cat Stevens — was on a government watch list and barred from entering the country, federal officials said.

United Airlines Flight 919 was en route to Dulles International Airport when the match was made between a passenger and a name on the watch list, said Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. The plane was met by federal agents at Maine's Bangor International Airport around 3 p.m., Melendez said.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy identified the passenger as Islam. "He was interviewed and denied admission to the United States on national security grounds," Murphy said, and would be put on the first available flight out of the country today.

Officials, speaking on condition they remain anonymous, said Islam, 56, was a financial supporter of groups believed to be linked to terrorism.

One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Islam, 56, was identified by the Advanced Passenger Information System, which requires airlines to send passenger information to Customs and Border Protection's National Targeting Center.

The Transportation Security Administration then was contacted and requested that the plane land at the nearest airport, that official said.

Flight 919 eventually continued on to Dulles after Islam was removed from the flight.

Islam, who was born Stephen Georgiou, took Cat Stevens as a stage name and had a string of hits in the 1960s and '70s, including Wild World and Morning Has Broken.

Last year he released two songs, including a re-recording of his '70s hit Peace Train, to express his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

He abandoned his music career in the late 1970s and changed his name after being persuaded by orthodox Muslim teachers that his lifestyle was forbidden by Islamic law. He later became a teacher and an advocate for his religion, founding a Muslim school in London in 1983.

Islam drew some negative attention in the late 1980s when he supported the Ayatollah Khomeini's death sentence against Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Recently, though, Islam has criticized terrorist acts, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the school seizure in Beslan, Russia, earlier this month that left more than 300 dead, nearly half of them children.

Does anyone have any idea what these "groups believed to be linked to terrorism" are, because it sounds extremely vague?

According to the Guardian, he was accused of donating tens of thousands of dollars to Hamas in 1988 (whose activities he has repeatedly expressed support for).

Even the Hitler Jugend helped a lot or arian granmas to cross the street, this doesn't mean they were good. Like it or not, Hamas is a terrorist group.

I understand maybe I've been a little rude. Anyway since its inception Hamas' main aim is the destruction of Israel - its even in the preamble of their manifesto of 1988.

We do? Hey, thanks for telling me what I think! When you're done reading my mind, I can think of lots of other things I'd like to know about myself, if you've got a minute.

b-b-but cat stevens wrote "here comes my baby"! and "matthew and son"!

Richard Thompson is an authentic Muslim alright - next time you meet him ask him what he thinks of Shariah Law, because I certainly remember reading him defending the cutting of thieves' hands etc.

Mostly this was spurred by a memory of when Harrison died, I was out with a group of friends who are Hindu (from Bombay), who were laughing at the obit describing Harrison as a Hindu. When I asked what was so funny about that, my friend said, "He will never really be a Hindu unless he looks like me." And they agreed with this...they thought if was funny, that this white man could call himself a Hindu...it got me thinking.

I suspect the congregation your Dad is president of is more or less 'liberal,' or non-traditional? My Jewish friends have told me many times (especially when I was about to marry a Jewish woman and considering converting) that conversion is discouraged.

Briania, Judaism is NOT evangelical. (Unless you count Jews for Jesus.)