Many people's initial reaction to the Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam incident is that it was a manifestation of the 'all Muslims are terrorists' mentality that some Americans have. Abiola, over at Foreign Dispatches, points out that it might not be so simple.
The former singer endorsed the death sentence against Salman Rushdie and was accused by the Israeli government of giving large sums of money to the terrorist organization Hamas.
While I don't agree with denying him entry to the US, it's worth considering this. Anyone who encourages killing an author just because he wrote a novel isn't deserving of a lot of sympathy, even from liberal-minded types. Especially from liberal-minded types. George W. Bush or not.
1 comment:
Yes, I'm glad to see someone is pointing this out. I couldn't remember the specifics but I knew that he had said some dumb/aggressive things after 9/11. It doesn't exactly make him into a terrorist threat, but he's hardly fit to be lionized as yet another victim, IMO. -NYCO
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