Shlonkom Bakazay?

I would like to congratulate Tom Ridge and President Bush for preventing Cat Stevens from landing in Washington. I mean, really, good job guys. I see why we have the new measures in place now. America is safer, isn't it? You diverted Islam from arriving in D.C.! I mean that guy's fucking crazy...with his peace train re-release last year before the war. I mean, come on, his name is Islam. Isn't that what you're fighting Mr. President?

Oh, no...I remember now, you said Islam is a religion of peace...but that we should destroy the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in order to allow Iraqis to become a democracy. Oh, wait...you said Iraq was a democracy already yesterday. And that was actually McCain talking about Fallujah...and Fallujah's not a holy city, right? So it can be sacrificed to make America even safer than it already is. But Iraq is a 'crucible of terrorism' according to Tony Blair. Then let me get this straight. So, it is right that you divert Islam in order to destroy the crucible so that peace can come out of religion? Isn't it?

No, wait, I'm confused.

Are you trying to stoke the fires of extremisms Mr. President? Now, be careful, you're really going to piss off some people in Iraq because you detained Islam. You could have at least censored the press from releasing this damaging report having to do with some hippy turned devout orthodox muslim, Cat Stevens.

He always thought it was a wild world. And I bet when the morning broke, he didn't believe he would be taking the peace train to bangor, maine.

All in all, I think creating the massive beuraucracy of the Department of Homeland Security, passing the Patriot Act, and having this war on Iraq has really made America (and the world) safer in diverting Cat Stevens, aka Yusuf Islam, from D.C.

Congratulations for fending off the dangerous spectre of Cat Stevens and not allowing the peace train to land from the sky into the bosom of the holy capitol of this most civilized of all nations.

___

[gag gag EKKK...(loud thud)]

who's there?!

[crash!...another loud thud, and a door slams]

OH, that was my evil twin brother, subliminal.

that bastard is cramping my style.

peace everybody,
limAHnal

---

Update: Professor Cole sets the record straight as far as Cat Stevens deportation goes. You learn something new everyday.

...I have a hard time rushing to Yusuf Islam's defense because I never forgave him for advocating the execution of Salman Rushdie in 1989. He endorsed Khomeini's "fatwa" or death edict against Rushdie for the novel, Satanic Verses. He later explained this position away by saying that he did not endorse vigilante action against Rushdie, but would rather want the verdict to be carried out by a proper court. These are weasel words, since he was saying that if Khomeini had been able to field some Revolutionary Guards in London to kidnap Rushdie and take him to Tehran, it would have been just dandy if he were then taken out and shot for having written his novel. In my view, that entire episode of the Khomeini fatwa showed how sick some forms of Muslim activism had become, and served as a foretaste of al-Qaeda's own death warrant served on a lot of other innocent people.

And, the disavowal wasn't even consistent. AP reported on March 8, 1989, that "Cat Stevens Endorses Rushdie Death Sentence Again," writing:


' Former pop singer Cat Stevens reiterated his support for the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death sentence against Salman Rushdie, saying the author's treatment of Islam was "as good as stabbing Moslems in the heart." . . . "It's got to be seen as a deterrent, so that other people should not commit the same mistake again," Stevens said in an interview with the television show "World Monitor," produced by The Christian Science Monitor . . Stevens, who said the novel's treatment of Islam was "as good as stabbing Moslems in the heart," suggested that Rushdie should repent writing the book. "If he manages to escape (the death sentence) he still has to face God on the day of judgment," he said. "So I would recommend to him to sincerely change his ways right now." '


At the time, Rushdie's life was in imminent danger, and Cat Stevens was skating pretty close to inciting to murder. (What else is the "deterrent" he is talking about?)

So, to steal from Bill Maher:

NEW RULES: If you advocate the execution of novelists for writing novels, you and John Ashcroft deserve one another.