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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (348086)	8/24/2007 2:13:55 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1573789

"Yusuf Islam's own website further reveals his fundamentalist and radical bent. It celebrates his collaboration with a notorious American Islamist, Shaikh Hamza Yusuf [Hanson]. Hamza Yusuf was known before September 11 for his radical preaching. In 1991, Hamza Yusuf "gave a provoking speech about why 'Jihad is the Only Way,'" at an International Islamic Conference held at the University of Southern California by the local unit of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a front for the al Qaeda-allied Jama'at-i-Islami movement in Pakistan. The same Los Angeles event was addressed by Imam Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted co-conspirator named in 1995 in a plot to blow up New York City monuments." weeklystandard.com In a prior post to you, I pointed out the substandard quality of rightwing journalism and why I look a jaundice eye at whatever their latest claim du jour is. The Weekly Standard did an article on Cat Stevens pointing out why he was forced to return to Britain by the US gov't. I read the entire article and still don't understand what the WS thinks was sufficient justification but that's another issue. The above paragraph is from that article.....it links people to his website which they warn is an example of "his fundamentalist and radical bent". Read the letter on the site written by him......if this is the words of a terrorist, I'll eat my shirt: yusufislam.org.uk And here is the link to the letter he wrote in the British Guardian after he was publicly humiliated by the US gov't: guardian.co.uk And here is some excerpts: "The Boeing 747 carrying me and my 21-year-old daughter, with more than 200 other passengers, had been ordered to make an emergency stop in a ghost-like airport called Bangor. It seemed a terrible mistake. My ticket said Washington. The FBI men kept asking me to spell my name. "Y-U-S-U-F," I patiently repeated. They looked puzzled. "Are you sure that's the only way you spell it?" My daughter and I were separated for over an hour for questioning. The officers treated us well, but there was an unbearable uncertainty echoing round my mind: Why? Nobody could answer that question. At least in the past I could see my Moonshadow; now I was dealing with a ghost within a database system, untraceable and indiscriminate. I had been on my way to Nashville to explore some new musical ideas with a record label there. It was meant to be low-profile because of speculation that it might have raised in the music world about a return of "the Cat" - media attention was the last thing I wanted. But it seems God wanted it otherwise." <cut> "I was driven over 200 miles to Boston, changing vehicles three times. It was only while I was watching TV in a confined hotel room at Boston's Logan airport, that I realised the gross slanders and allegations being spoken against me. The amazing thing is that I was not given (and have still not been given) any explanation of what it is I am accused of, let alone an opportunity to respond to these allegations. I was simply told that the order had come from "on high". On the planet I come from, I've never known a court where you don't know what crime was committed; you don't hear evidence; and you don't even see a jury or judge." <cut> I am a man of peace and denounce all forms of terrorism and injustice; it is outrageous for the US authorities to suggest otherwise. I have dedicated my life to promoting peace throughout the world. It would be devastating were the charity work I do through my humanitarian relief organisation, Small Kindness, which helps countless children and families, and my work for education, to be undermined by what has happened. I can think of no better response than to continue the important work of caring for the needy and campaigning for peace and stability in this volatile and violent world, and at the same time try to seek to clear my name of this appalling and baseless slur against my character." After 9/11 Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens allowed the rerelease of his song, Peace Train. In this particular version, images of Teheran are shown.....a city much like an American one with people who do not look all that much different from Americans: lucasgray.com And now some background on Yusuf Islam: He was born to a Greek Cypriot father and a Swedish mother. Greeks are Christian and many [including his father] hate Muslims because of Turkey which, in the past, was the arch enemy of Greece particularly over the issue of what to do with Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots hate each other to this day. When Yusuf was 19, he contracted a serious case of TB and was hospitalized for a year.......apparently he had an after death experience during that time and came face to face with his mortality. That began his road down to his conversion to Islam. Eventually he married a Muslim and they set up a Muslim school outside of London. He gave away all the money he made as a recording star. Since then, he has raised money for Muslim children throughout the world. In fact, he was given a humanitarian award by the prestigious university of Exeter in the UK for all his work. He continues to work to the betterment of the world. This is the man that was publicly humilitated by the American gov't in 2004.......wrongfully. Its the result of all the hate, fear, misrepresentations and anger generated by the right. If Yusuf Islam was guilty of anything beyond his conversion to Islam, he would have been arrested in a NY minute. Instead, the Bushies intentionally made a public skeptical of him for the hell of it. After all, he sings of peace.....a sin in the eyes of the neos.