Cat Stevens: Islamic Terrorist
 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133095,00.html

This really annoys me. Do we need to put his music on to remember what he sang about? Why is it that we assume muslims have terror ties unless they can prove that they don't and even then we are suspicious. We should not fear all muslims. From the sound of it the government has a lot of accusations and very little proof.

Has the country reverted back to another cold war? No longer is the boogie man communism it is now Islam. We need to change this.

This is the most stupid story I've heard all week and believe you me, that wasn't an easy list to top.

I see a lot of "think" "potentially" and "claim" littered in the above story. I would like to see more "certainly" "definately" and "did" before we start throwing Muslims off of planes and accusing them of terroristic activities.

fucking idiots.

Dont you know ALL muslims are terrorists? /sarcasm

From what it sounds like the US was acting on Mossad intel., seeing as too he's had problems over in Jerusalem. You definitly run a risk of actively aiding terrorism by supporting some of those "charities".

But I guess you guys are right, how dare we. I mean giving support to terror isn't a crime. We really should take an innocent until proven guilty or until they fly a plane into a building stance when it comes to Arab Muslims who are suspected of having terrorist ties, we wouldn't want to offend anyone.

Terrorism is a crime and should be handled as such. If a person is guilty of a crime, or conspiring to commit a crime, you arrest them, charge them, and sentence them.

If the person is a criminal, they need to be locked up. If not, then they need to share the same rights as any citizen.

Your sarcasm is noted, but duly inappropriate. The simple fact is that it is a crime to conspire to commit a crime, or knowingly provide assistance to the commission of a crime, so both of your points are errant. I don't have to wait until you hijack a plane to arrest you for conspiracy. I do have to have an actual reason though beyond conjecture to make it stick. In the meantime though, so long as I don't have enough to arrest you on, you deserve to live without restriction on your freedom.

Terrorists are criminals. To treat them any differently is insane. They are not worthy of their own classification. They are not worthy of disruption of our justice system and challenge of our legal system. They are not worthy of our self-imposed limits of freedom. Why do we grant them these mantles to wear? Why do we do the terrorists' work for us and dismantle our own freedom?

Next stop: internment camps.

Racial/Religious profiling will get you killed.

w00t! It's the, uh, green scare! :rolleyes: (apologies if there's a different predominant color for Islam, green is just the one I see most often)

The really sad thing is there was a poll on CNN asking if he should have been let into the US and the majority of people who responded (albeit, a small majority) said no. :(

He became a nutcase who gives money to Hamas. Screw'em.

Though I'm sure his song wishing he could kill Salmon Rushdie was a big hit in some parts of the world.

This is crap. Anonymous and undidentified government sources claim he gave money to groups linked with Hamas!?!?! What crap. First off, LEARN who created Hamas and for what reason. Furthermore this world is ph*cked..REALLY HARD. Ignorance is definetly Wisdom.

Yea I'm sure they deported him just because they wanted to deport a high profile person and cause a stir for fun, or maybe they have a good reason.

So this is where we stand...
You just stay there and believe what they say and I will be upset because all the incriminating evidence is never divulged or like 9-11 sold off. Whatever.
Look what is happening (always happens) to Dan Rather. A respected mainstream celebrity attepmts to make a real report or share their opinion in art or writing and BOOM...down you go.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/...311162,00.html

or maybe they dont.

Well, evidently doesn't read Stephen King:

Im with Ustwo on this, maybe they DO have a good reason to kick his arse out. Just because he was once a famous musician/hippy/idiot-with-a-beard singing about peace does not mean that he can't commit crimes.

Do you know if he is buddies with Osama? No, you do not. Maybe the government has some intelligence on him that brings him under suspicion, hence the fact that they threw him out of the country.

And his music is bad enough that he could be classified as a terrorist. His music is a blight upon this world. He should be shot. :p

In regards to that article, how the hell is he victimised by this?

"OOOOOOOOOH poor me the US won't let me in! OH PLEASE GOD NO!!!!"

I am sure he is scarred for life.

And now there is a big bow wow over this because he is an (ex) celebrity. Thats BS as well.

Cat Stevens, or Yusuf Islam, whatever (no one cares at all by the way): STFU. Quit your whining.

smooth--i quite liked that quote, and considered pasting it here seperately.

you know, if the americans were to equate bad pop music with terrorism, things would be easier to bear--that way, if any country band left the country, they would not be able to return. it would be a way to thin out the bluegrass scene. maybe the program directors of the major american orchestras, too--the people who inflict the same nineteenth century warhorse repertoire on all of us year after year--clearly they too should be sent packing. and the boy bands. and limp bizkit, who could be sent to that special circle of hell they so richly deserve to roast in. we could rid ourselves of green day.

seriously, cat stevens is no more a "terrorist" than you are. his "crime" might well have been that he converted to islam. or maybe it was the record of muslim children's songs he made after he converted. quite a threat to america, that.

I'll withhold my opinion on this until I learn more.

I do find it disturbing that he supported killing an author because of something he wrote.

If he has provable terrorist connections, they have him in custudy and can charge him with them. If he doesn't have provable connections let him go.

Pat Roberts is a bigger terrorist then this guy but I don't see him being deported.

There's a bigger problem, and it's not Cat Stevens.

The government has a "watch list" because there are supposedly people who need watching. How in the hell could a plane take off and be in the air when they realize that someone on the watch list was on the plane.

Cat Stevens I don't see as an iminent threat, however based on this fine security measure, someone who truly needed watching would be allowed on the plane. Diverting it elsewhere doesn't do a lot of good.

What's this about? Any links?
It sounded pretty ridiculous that they made such a fuss about Cat Stevens (Mr. Islam, hehe) but it sounds like theres more to it..?? He funded Hamas????

The issue was a man wrote a book deflaming the Koran and the man was sentenced to death in Iran (i believe). Cat said he supported that (along with many other muslims). I don't see a problem here. Are you telling me that if someone came out with a book defaming the bible that there would be a lot of extreamist christians coming out against it? Hell we have christains saying they will kill homosexuals for looking at them. Just because he said he supported someone elses decision doesn't make him a terrorist.

If I were to say that I support the Iraqi's right to fight for their freedom from the occupation (even go as far as shoot at our soldiers) does that make me a terrorist?

the question of "the satanic verses" and khomeni's fatwa is interesting--all the more so if you've actually read the book...because if you read it, you find that there is both a heretical element (involving the scribe who takes down mohammed's words changing them on the way, testing mohammed, figuring that if he was divinely inspried, he would notice the changes--you can see why this would be a problem, if you know anything about islam) and political satire directed against khomeni himself--so the reasons for the fatwa are more complicated than you might imagine.

i was appalled at the fatwa, but i would not go so far as to say that if cat stevens endorsed it in some way (on what basis i do not know--is he shi'a?) that that would make him a "terrorist"--the connection seems completely ridiculous--coming from a country made up of municipalities that ban books for so much less, of people who are quite sure about why a film like f911 is evil without having seen it, that confuse dissent with treason...

Specifically, the man was Salmon Rushdie and the book was "The Satanic Verses". The Ayatolla Khomenie (sp?) issued a death edict calling for all muslims to try to kill Mr. Rushdie for his book. Mr. Rushdie was in hiding for many many years and I believe still keeps a very low profile.

You don't see a problem with this???

Soooo, if someone offends someone elses religion, it is OK with you to support killing them???

(And the "Christian" who said that was Jimmy Swaggart, who has already appologized for the remark and doesn't represent most Christians anyway. Nor has he actively tried to assasinate people, unlike radical muslims.)

No, it doesn't. It makes him a supporter of murder in the name of religion.

No, but if you acted on your statement, by giving aid to the enemy, it would make you a traitor.

Honestly, addressing just this one issue of Salmon Rushdie, it sounds to me like you're defending Islam aka Stevens because this piece of his past doesn't support your argument, which doesn't paint you in a very good light (i.e. you support murder in the name of religion when it suits you.)

Is this really what you intend?

http://www.subir.com/rushdie.html

this is a good collection of links about salman rushdie, including the whole "rushdie affair".
but like i said above, talking about it is a whole lot more interesting if you have actually read the book.

If this is the same Mossad intelligence that convinced the U.S to invade Iraq by saying they had proof of WMD, then they must be right. But of course, I wouldn't want to offend anyone.

"Cat Stevens - Islamic Terrorist" is pretty sensationalist, sarcastically so I understand. Taken in context, if the guy supported a fatwa to kill (really, to KILL?) an author of a book in publication all over the world, well all I can say is I understand that freedom of speech isn't practiced all over the world, and I can understand a lot of Muslims getting pissed off at Rushdie. (thanks for the link, rb) Seems a bit harsh to deny him entry into the US but who knows what the intelligence community knows about the guy? It's a sign of the times; this kind of stuff is probably going to happen to a lot of innocent (and some not-so-innocent) people for a while as the US is understandably on Hyper-Alert these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens

It seems that the USA becomes more and more paranoid.

What I say to Cat Stevens is don't be shy. It's a wild world but we may ride on the peace train yet. Before to long we'll be back to the good old times, where tolerance was high and muslims didn't have to hide in the moonshadow. Until then, you can always go to Katmandu.

i was digging your jive until you threw in some seger for the finish. bogus. :(

No, Cat Stevens has a song called Katmandu too. Damn, I wondered about that one!

No, not all muslims are terrorists,

BUT

Most terrorists are muslims.

As far as Stevens goes, I lost all respect for the man when he said that Rushdie should be killed. That's just plain loonie tunes time.

The hell with him. If the American gov't decides they don't want him in their country, last time I checked, that was their right.

We seem to be arguing over the man instead of the situation.

There's no doubt he's taken some serious asshole-like stances. Condemning Rushdie to die and his "charity" work. The problem I have with it is that the whole thing seemed arbitrary to begin with.

Millions of people fly across, into and out of the United States everyday and of all the folks to pull off the no-fly list they pick Cat Stevens...excuse me, Yusef Islam in Bangor, then they fill the papers with innuendo about his terrorist ties and then, instead of keeping a hold of him, they deport him back to England.

If he's a terrorist (and seriously, who can say he isn't for certain) then publish some evidence to prove the fact. Give us something other than "think" "supposed" "maybe" and "potentially." If he has terrorist ties (and that's what we've been led to believe) throw them out there for the world to see. We seem to have no problem doing this to guys like Bin Laden, Al Zaqwari and Hussein. What makes Ol' Cat Stevens special?

If he does have established terrorist ties, why not keep him around for questioning a little longer. We (American Government) feels the evidence is strong enough to deport him, but not strong enough to warrant a serious interrogation. Homeland Security calls it a "very serious matter," but the interrogation Islam describes didn't seem like anything other than a groupie get together with laughs and autographs for all the infidels.

Either he's a threat, or he isn't.

How are supposed to take this no-fly list seriously and feel safe when we fly when stupid shit like this happens?

I'm surprised so many of you support this.

It was a silly mistake.

Don't the rabid (and even not-so-rabid) conservatives in the US ever admit mistakes?


Mr Mephisto

no, mr mephisto. no they do not.

paranoia folks, it'll destroy ya...

what a load of shit.

Jesus! the guy that wrote "Peace Train" is now considered a terrorist?
He MAY have donated money to a charity that MAY have supported terrorists.
Shit, I MAY have supported terrorists when I bought a paper from Samad at the newstand this morning.

I hope they deport me someplace cool like Amsterdam.

Remember this all came from the Dept. of Homeland security and the patriot act, perpetuated by dictator bush.

man, your complete lack of understanding and/or sympathy for anyone outside of your immediate clan of intolerant skinhead mahtzo ball nazis continues to amaze me.
buddha, allah, krishna, jehovah, elvis....... none of ´em can touch you for sheer love and tolerance. peace be with you. sad, bitter, deluded, investment banking fool.

You are pretty deluded yourself if you are sympathizing and/ or even trying to justify the knowing aid of assets to a terrorist organization.

what qualifies as a terrorist organization?

delusion seems to be the current state of mind. Aid to a terrorist organization? Your income tax. Every dollar that goes to supporting Israel, (17 million every day) comes from your pocket. 48 homes demolished in the last 36 hours, more than 150 families, kids, mamas, grammas, now live in the dirt. Terrorists? No, just guilty of being palestinean. Smells a lot like genocide to me.
but oh yes, forgive me. Back to the muslim ex pop singer. Knowing aid to terrorists ? Somebodys been watchin too much Fox news.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ne...news-headlines

As my grampa used to say..." whatta maroon!" And gee, look what happens when he sues.....http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...n_040925223243
spelling error. Didn´t Ted Kennedy, (that terrorist scum) just get bumped from his 4 times weekly (25 years) boston - D.C flight in the name of national security?
knowing aid? Show me.

If the US has information even suggesting that he is in any way linked to any terrorist group, then let him stay out. We need to actively pursue and eliminate terrorists and their supporters. If we are in error and do not have evidence, we need to apoligise and open our border to him.

After 21 years in the military, let me assure you that there are things you don't know. Things that are known only in small rooms with no windows. Things that make me sleep better at night. No, you are not privileged to this information and yes there are people much smarter than you are. Blind faith in your government is not required, but you need to give a little credit to the people doing a tough job in a tough world.

again I state if the government had credible evidence that he was aiding terroists then they should have held him and charged him. They don't have any evidence other than that he is an Islamic activist. While the government making blanket descisions about people based on their religious or political beliefs may make you sleep well at night, it makes my stomach turn.

Maybe we should just throw all people we think may have somehow supported "terrorism" (used lightly) into jails without trials. Wait we already do that it is called Guantonamo. So lets go a step further let's throw all brown skinned people into interrment camps. But why stop there let's throw all Muslims into prison camps. And while were at it to many black people commit violent crimes let's throw them into camps too. Why don't we just become a Nazi regiem and take away all that the people before us fought for. This is where we are heading when we start making blanket decisions.

I'm Christian and this statement insults me. I don't think the problem is mosts terrorists are muslims. I think the problem is we are just quick to label a muslim that does evil a terrorist and don't like to use the term for anyone that isn't muslim.

where the hell is all this evidence of aid and support for the terrorists? If you got a full house you lay it on the table. You will not take the pot unless I see your hand. You got the cards and there is no argument but I will never trust a proven bullshitter until I see em face up. National security concerns will never convince me. If you won´t show me, I know my pair of twos has you out of the game.

What if the "credible evidence" is also critical in stopping the 27 member team that he is supporting? What if stating it at this time would jeopardize 2 US operatives that have spent 3 years getting into position? Again I say, there are things happening that you nor I will be privy to. If Cat Stevens has become unwelcome in the US because of his statements or actions, that is his personal problem.

I do like how the US rejecting one person (we let his daughter in) is now a blanket statement. I suppose that no people of the muslim faith were let into the US since 911. There is no blanket policy regarding muslims, therefore, your second paragraph belongs in Tilted Paranoia.

27 member team? 2 U.S. ops spending 3 years getting in position? Mister secret service army guy, one question. Are you exceeding the state laws of Alaska regarding personal cultivation and consumption of marijuana? cause doood, you are way high.

you know I´ve seen alot of what the world can do
and it´s breakin my heart in two

Those were possible samples of why the US did not tip our hand. If you assume that fighting terrorism is a simple matter with black and white solutions, Mister pair of twos will be even more disappointed than you seem.

No I did not smoke dinner. While Alaska has awesome weed, I do not partake at this time.

you know I've seen alot of what the world can do
and I expect the US government to spend wakeless nights
keeping them away from me and mine.
It won't break my heart
Keep the fuckers out or put them in jail.

people like you worry me much much more than cat stevens. blind faith is one thing, wide eyed justification of the current fascistic politics of fear is another thing entirely. I´m glad you believe there are serious manipulations taking place behind our backs. Personally, I doubt the scheming bastards have our best interests at heart. Shouldn´t you be out shooting animals or something

Does holding people responsible for their actions and utilizing a "tool" such as limiting their freedom to enter the United States worry you? We are not arbitrarily denying people entry into the US. I limit entry into my house. I would not let a person that advocates killing a person for their writings into my home. Why would I not expect it from my country? Obviousy, there was a reason to deny that single person entry.

How did we get here from Cats in the Cradle? Are we making more of this than there is?

I believe that there are people doing the difficult and very non-popular job of protecting our nation. I believe that they will make mistakes, go overboard, miss things and hopefully learn from their mistakes.

Opinions vary.

Does this mean that you no longer wish to hear my opinion concerning this thread? Good day and don't forget to read the rules of Tilted Politics.

Your premise seems to be that arresting and charging someone (in this particular case, Cat Stevens) will alert the more distant network he is supporting.

If true, wouldn't the action of questioning and denying someone entry into the States have the same effect?

I mean, the terrorist network that he may be supporting now knows the intelligence community is on to them. Do I read you correctly that accosting Stevens would have alerted them of the government's knowledge that they exist?


Also, how does sending Stevens back to the UK do anything at all? Is he being denied entry for his ties to terrorists abroad? And if so, what would letting him visit the States with his daughter do to our collective safety? How exactly would our safety be undermined by him being here, yet bolstered by him being sent back to the UK?

Why hasn't he been more closely scrutinized on the other side of the pond? It would seem that while we aren't privy to certain info, the British Military Intelligence would be--especially, since Britian is our most vocal and tangible ally in our current endeavors?

COMMENTARY
Something Bad Has Begun
* The former Cat Stevens says he hasn't changed but the U.S. has.


By Yusuf Islam, Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, was deported to Britain last week after being refused entry into the United States.

--http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-islam28sep28,1,5160393.story

< conservative paranoia >
Thats the proof, Clintons have ties to AlQuaida
< /conservative paranoia >

Cat Stevens was guest of Canadian Hamas front

Hamas sympathizer, eh? Since Hamas is a terrorist organization, I agree with their decision to send him a-packin. No soup for the Cat.

Ok,

I've read this thread with interest, trying to formulate an opinion on these events.

If the last is true, that Yusuf/Cat was the guest of honor at a Hamas front organization, then this is particularly damning, IMO.

Of course, the question remains did he know it, does he know it now, and if so, does he still support them?


As to the piece he wrote that smooth posted, I would be interested in hearing his view of the situation in Israel and what should be done.

I also note that he didn't actually clarify the Salmon Rushdie affair. Does he or does he not support killing the man for something he wrote, either by an assassin or by a "legitimate" islamic government?

Sorry if it insults you.

I realize it's politically incorrect, however, it is pretty much the case.

When was the last time you saw a Christian chopping some muslim's head off in front of a video camera while he was sceaming "God is Great"

The only time you will hear a Christian say, "God is Great" is just before he says, "God is good, let us than him for the food"

Lets face facts, Islam is a religion with as severe image problem on its hands. They are a young religion and have never had a reformation. Just look at their subjegation of women, and their attitude towards nonbelievers.

You want to read an excellent book, read "The trouble with Islam" by Irshad Manji (a nice girl from Toronto who is a conflicted muslim.)

http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/

Does bombing them over and over again while claiming god is great count? If so you can look at Bush.

As was posted a page of comments ago, it is now claimed that Cat Stevens was the victim of a clerical error. From Yahoo News :

Now whether you believe this was a legitimate case of speliing error or embarrased state department backpedaling, we can obviously see that our government does not consider him a threat....or at least not enough of a threat to warrant the embarrasment of deporting him.

Mister boo, indeed you are right and i would like to apologize for the six pack of bile. Uncalled for and very counter productive to any intelligent form of debate.
I will try to curb my moments of stupidity in the future. Apologies.

We need to hear the evidence before we defame and miscategorize any individual. These acts of premature defamation are 100% not in-line with what this country stands for and what we used to justify all these terrorist prevention actions since 9-11. The taxpaying public is in no way required to just take what the administration says in fear of being labeled "one-of-them".
On a personal note it is an insult to many of our intelligence that we are left with little information to analyze and just press-releases to accept and believe.

What groups did he support which were linked to Hamas?

Indeed. The fact that these links with Hamas of Mr. Islam's, which Israel apparently knew about as well, weren't mentioned in the mainstream press at all is something of a mystery to me also.

I don't know if Cat Stevens knew he was supporting terror or not. Who does? But the ties to calling Israel a 'so-called new society' and 'so-called religion' surely puts him at the fore front as a terrorist since free speech doesn't apply to anything Israeli related unless it is a ringing endorsement. Other words it's hate propoganda. Therefore he must be a terrorist.

As for the source, the National Post, I would consider others before this rag since this paper is so pro-Israeli it is ridiculous. Wouldn't surprise me if the context has been changed to put Cat Stevens in a negative light. Afterall this is a paper that changed a Reuters story last week (the wording, to suit it's needs) without permission from Reuters to do so.

Also this same paper yesterday justified Israel going into Syria to blow up a terrorist. I don't have a problem with Israel killing terrorists. But just doing as they please in another country devoid of all diplomacy? Oh, I forgot, this is Israel we are speaking of. They can do what ever they want when they want to. I can just imagine the U.S response if Canada blew up a terrorist like Israel did, say in mid-town Manhattan in the middle of the day without any dialogue between the countries. Do you think the U.S would be pissed? But I digress.

Well it's one thing when countries like Syria knowingly harbor and sanction terrorism and terrorists in the country, and allow them to use it as a base of operations.

Yes, it is different than Canada striking in the US. Syria and Israel are at war still, and have no lost love between them. As for whose harboring terrorists, forget it, they are both immoral, illegal, and detested combatants to each other (that's their view of eachother), whatever labels are applied. Until one of them takes a serious step to peace, whatever they do to each other is pretty much fair game.