Mareseatoatsanddoeseatoatsbutlittlelambseativy.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Peace Plane

What is the point of the "No Fly" list? Is it to punish people or prevent another suicide hijacking? Because if it is the latter then I don't think that Cat Stevens really poses a risk. If it is the former then we should get rid of it. We shouldn't be punishing people who have not been convicted of anything with restricted movement.

I'm no fan of Yusuf Islam, the new name that Cat Stevens now uses. I do not like religious extremists and he sure is one. He came out in favor of the death threat from the Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie. But this administration's restricting travel by diktat is unethical (though, not surprising) and un-American.

3 comments:

gberke said...

Cat Stevens? Seems pretty harmless, I would agree. On the other hand, I do believe he really believes in and supports the radical muslim movement.
I think we've built up a bit of a pressure cooker on the whole airline safety thing, and I suspect they really really want to get someone through.
On the other hand, me, yours truly: I was "selected" for screening. I'm not a terrorist. I know that for sure. No doubt at all. Really.

Matt said...

This morning the local radio station (103.5 the "FOX" - not sure if this is a Murdoch outfit) was discussing this story. They said in no uncertain terms that Mr. Islam is a financial supporter of Hamas. They then called their program director and got permission to remove Cat's music from the radio station's programming.

I haven't seen anything in the news saying that Mr. Islam supports Hamas. Have you?

Ken said...

From the Post article:
Islam was denied entry into Israel several years ago out of concerns that his charitable contributions had funded militant groups. He denied knowingly contributing to any such groups.

also

After the terrorist attacks in 2001, Islam said he would donate profits from his CD box set to families of the victims of the attacks.