Cat Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, on Hamas

In today's New York Times Magazine, Deborah Solomon interviews Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens.

He has only recently resumed his singing career after a long pause in which he apparently assumed music was fitna (causes dissent) according to the tenets of Islam. Or, as he put it "I never actually committed myself to stating or believing that musical instruments were prohibited by Islam. It was just a gray area, so I stayed out in order to avoid conflict."

Stevens, or rather Islam, the name he now prefers, was only recently allowed back into the United States after having been taken off a plane as it entered the U.S. after officials realized that his name was on a terrorism-related no-fly list.

According to a CNN report, other government officials said Islam was on the watch list because he was suspected of having associations and providing financial support to unnamed Muslim charities with terrorist connections. In its report, CNN quoted Homeland Security spokesman Garrison Courtney as saying "the intelligence community has come into possession of additional information that further heightens our concerns of Yusuf Islam."

Israeli authorities barred Islam from entering their country not once but twice because of their belief that he had funded Hamas.

Islam disputed the inclusion of his name on the no-fly list saying that it was there because of a spelling error. The actual name on the list was Youssouf Islam, while he spells his first name Yusuf. To clear up the record, Islam successfully sued two UK papers for libel for having tried to substantiate the allegations that he was indeed associated with terrorist organizations.

Eventually, however, the U.S. government must have satisfied itself that Islam's associations did not rise to the level of keeping him forever barred from entering the U.S. because in 2006, he was allowed back into the country.

It is in this context then that Solomon's questions about what Islam really thinks of Hamas, an organization that the U.S. has named as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, become particularly interesting. Following are the relevant passages from her interview:

[Solomon:] For all your devotion to education and good deeds, government officials in various countries have tried to link you to extremist groups, including Hamas. What do you think of Hamas?

[Islam:] That’s an extremely loaded question.

[Solomon:] Can you try to answer it?

[Islam:] I have never supported a terrorist group or any group that did other than charity and good to humankind.

[Solomon:] O.K., but many of us here in the States would like to see moderate Muslims make more of an effort to denounce the extremist fringe of the faith. Very few mainstream Muslims have publicly criticized their radical brethren.

[Islam:] If I am not an example of that, then tell me, Who is?

[Solomon:] So would you say you have contempt for a terrorist group like Hamas?

[Islam:] I wouldn’t put those words in my mouth. I wouldn’t say anything on that issue. I’m here to talk about peace. I’m a man who does want peace for this world, and I don’t think you will achieve that by putting people into corners and asking them very, very difficult questions about very contentious issues.