Why was Cat Stevens on a watch list?

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It seems really wierd that Cat Stevens would be on a terrorist watch list, doesn’t it? Nope, not when you know all the details.

It’s alleged he gave thousands to the militant Palestinian group Hamas, and to the son of blind cleric Omar Abdel Rachman who was believed to have masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Yusuf Islam denies giving money to terrorists, and claims he thought he was donating to the poor.

Islam is on a “do not admit” list meaning he’s not allowed to enter the U.S.

One more quick question, this one for ABC: Does being convicted for the bombing of the WTC lend any creedance to the belief that Omar Abdel Rachman was involved? Can we cut to the chase & just skip over the whole ‘believed’ angle when someone has been convicted?

1 thought on “Why was Cat Stevens on a watch list?”

  1. Matt M.

    He did speak out when Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and plead for his release. I wonder if he’s changed his mind from when he wrote “…I have worked for many years to save lives and help people in need, this is because it is an obligation as a human being…” in February of 2002. Also he donated half the royalties of his most recent box set to the 9/11 Fund for victims. Oddly he had traveled to the US as recently as May of 2004. As far as I know his alleged donations to Hamas came in 2000. I wonder what got him thrown on the list between May 04 and now.

    Oh and the original AP article phrases that same section differently:

    A second government official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said U.S. authorities think donations from Islam may have ended up helping to fund blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Hamas, a Palestinian militant group considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel.

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