Officials Say Ex-Pop Singer Linked to Hamas

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security officials said yesterday that British pop star Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, was barred from entering America and sent back to London because of “new intelligence” information linking him with the Palestinian Arab terrorist organization Hamas.


Family and friends of Mr. Islam, who was due to arrive in London this morning after being detained in Bangor, Maine, following the diverting on Tuesday afternoon of his United Airlines flight from London to Washington D.C., dispute the allegation, denouncing the deportation as a “slap in the face of sanity.”


Mr. Islam’s brother, David Gordon, said the barring of his brother was a “mistake.” Mr. Islam, who changed his name after abandoning his singing career and converting to Islam in 1977, visited New York in May, but federal officials deny that he slipped through any cracks in the system then, saying that he was a recent addition to American watch-lists.


“Additional intelligence information” since the spring resulted in his being placed on “numerous watch-lists, including the no-fly list,” Garrison Courtney, a Homeland Security spokesman, told The New York Sun. He added that the new information “heightened intelligence community concerns about him.” Officials were working with United Airlines to discover why Mr. Islam was allowed to board the plane in London in the first place.


An FBI official told the Sun that Mr. Islam was placed on watch-lists because of donating money to Hamas. The official, who spoke to the Sun on the condition of anonymity, indicated that the additional information was supplied by Israel.


Mr. Islam was denied entry to Israel four years ago after the authorities there accused him also of supporting Hamas. Mr. Islam strongly denied he had contributed money to a terrorist organization and said all his charitable donations were for humanitarian causes. In a statement released by his record label Universal Music at the time, he said: “I want to make sure that people are aware that I’ve never ever knowingly supported any terrorist groups – past, present or future.” He did not specifically indicate if he had any dealings with Hamas or not.


Since his conversion to Islam, Mr. Islam, who as Cat Stevens sold more than 50 million albums in a career lasting little more than a decade, has devoted himself to Muslim advocacy and the running of four Islamic schools in London, one of which became the first Muslim school in Britain to receive government support.


Mr. Islam has also donated money and devoted considerable time to a variety of causes, including to orphans in the Balkans and the West Bank. He has acted as a private “peace envoy” to Iraq and served as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.


The New York Sun

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