posted September 27, 2004 03:23 PM              

quote:

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September 25th, 2004
YUSUF ISLAM'S OFFICIAL STATEMENT

First, I thank God for relieving me of my ordeal and delivering me home safe; also, thanks to all those who prayed for me and supported me through this whole dark episode, from eminent politicians, the press and religious leaders, to plain, everyday people. Never would I believe that such a thing could happen in the ‘land of the free’ - unfortunately, it did. But it’s warming to have such a wave of sympathy from my friends and my worldwide well-wishers.

After the experience of my dramatic deportation from the U.S.A. it feels like I am on a different planet from the one I was on a couple of days ago; certainly the world has changed, not for the best. Two days beforehand, I had started a journey with my daughter to Nashville, intending to initiate work on a new recording project. Suddenly, our aeroplane was diverted 600 miles to Bangor International Airport and I found myself surrounded by six uniformed officers and handed over to the FBI for questioning.

The most upsetting thing at this point was being separated from my daughter, Maymanah, not knowing how she was or when and where we might be united. And since my phone was confiscated I couldn’t contact my family (nor could they ring me) and they were relegated to watching the whole frightening episode on TV and surviving on scraps of information shown by the media.

My interrogators repeatedly wanted to know how my name was spelt; it sounded to me as though they had it mixed up with someone else’s. Security officers finally told me that my name was on a ‘No Fly List’, I was classified as ‘Inadmissible’, and sent back to London.

The amazing thing is that I was not given (and have still not been given) any explanation whatsoever as to what it is I am accused of, or why I am now deemed an apparent security threat - let alone given an opportunity to respond to these allegations. I was simply told that the order had come from ‘on high’.

We have now initiated a legal process to try to find out exactly what is going on, and to take all necessary steps to undo the very serious, and wholly unfounded, injustice which I have suffered.

I am a man of peace and denounce all forms of terrorism and injustice; it is simply outrageous for the U.S. authorities to suggest otherwise. I have dedicated my life to promoting peace and understanding throughout the world. It would be devastating were the charity work I do through my humanitarian relief organisation, Small Kindness, which helps countless children and families, and which is accredited by the United Nations, to be undermined by what has happened.

What makes the situation even more distressing is the fact that I have now been prevented from entering the United States - a part of God’s earth that I love and whose people have always been great friends to me.

Yet, after all this, I can think of no better response than by continuing what I believe to be the tremendously important work of caring for the needy and campaigning for peace and stability in this volatile and increasingly violent world, and at the same time try to seek to clear my name of this appalling and baseless slur. In the meantime I am confident that, in the end, good sense and, above all, justice, will prevail.

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posted September 27, 2004 03:42 PM              

Thank you US government for saving us from Cat Stevens......now 'Yusuf Islam', clearly a terrorist. Good job.

posted September 27, 2004 04:13 PM            

Now watch this folks, before you know it (with the bumbling with this Homeland Security), we'll have a terrorist act done against us by a man named Islam Yusuf instead of Yusuf Islam!

posted September 27, 2004 04:36 PM            

As soon as you raise your hand(s), I'll be sure to ask you "HOW" you "know".

Israel bounced him out of Israel for giving $10,000 to Hamas.

Entering the United States is a privilege, not a right of any non citizen. The United States and the United States alone decides who, when and for what purposes non citizens may enter the US.

Was a mistake made....yes. He should never have been permitted to board that plane in the first place with his name on the list. Was his name spelled incorrectly? Perhaps.

posted September 27, 2004 04:49 PM            

So, who am I supposed to believe?

posted September 27, 2004 05:20 PM            

That's right JW, many Muslims are over there, while the Israelies manage to erase a culture under our own supervision, oh but if the Nazis did that to the Jews, it was called evil, when the Jews do it to the Muslims, it's called policy!

posted September 27, 2004 05:41 PM            

This is why I think that this terrorist thing is controled by some "upstairs management" and it's not only al-Quaida,it's alot more then that, I believe that this has more to do with some Holy Statis War instead!

Palestine should remain Palestine, not another extention for Israel to embark upon!

posted September 27, 2004 05:56 PM            

When news video of a suicide bombing of a popular nightclub in Israel is shown, do you believe that?

posted September 27, 2004 07:12 PM              

I say, be careful of believing anything men say to you anymore. Or show to you. Especially when it comes from far-away places and you cannot possibly have any evidence of it yourself, or even know someone personally who has evidence of it.

Who's to say what Isreal's motivation is, or our own government's motivation? Do you think you are likely to get a clear answer from either of them on this question if the true answer would be perceived as unpopular or threatening to their power? Of course not.

Why waste time arguing "facts" you can't possibly prove?

posted September 27, 2004 07:31 PM            

All else is speculation, rumor, insinuation and opinion, which may or may not prove to be true...or factual.

posted September 27, 2004 09:04 PM              

To whom?

"And the only people I fear
Are those who never have doubts"
--Billy Joel

posted September 27, 2004 09:18 PM            

Guess that way anything can mean anything you want it to. But not in the real world paras. In the real world, words have definite meanings. In that world, facts are proven truths.

I don't have to prove facts to you paras. It's up to you to inform your ignorance. There's a big wide world of factual information. Give it the old college try.

posted September 27, 2004 09:56 PM              

The illusions of hope are apt to close one's eyes to the painful truth.
HARRY F. BANKS

Your belief or your disbelief is not going to make any difference to the truth. Truth is truth, whether you believe or you disbelieve.

But if you believe in something it starts appearing as true to you at least. That's what the meaning of belief is: belief means to believe in something as true -- you know that you don't know, you know that the truth is unknown to you, but in your ignorance you start believing, because belief is cheap.

To discover truth is arduous, it needs a long pilgrimage. It needs a great emptying of the mind, it needs a great cleansing of the heart. It needs a certain innocence, a rebirth: you have to become a child again.

Only very few people have ever dared to discover truth. And it is risky, because it may not console you; it has no obligation to console you. It is risky: it may shatter all that you have known before, and you will have to rearrange your whole life. It is dangerous: it may destroy all your illusions, it may shatter all your dreams. It is really going through fire; it is going to burn you as you are, it is going to kill you as you are. And who knows what will happen later on?
.................
The inquiry into truth begins only when you drop all believing. You say, "I would like to encounter the truth on my own. I will not believe in Christ and I will not believe in Buddha. I would like to become a christ or a buddha myself, I would like to be a light unto myself."

Why should one be a Christian? It is ugly. Be a christ if you can be, but don't be a Christian. Be a buddha if you have any respect for yourself, but don't be a Buddhist. The Buddhist believes. Buddha knows.

When you can know, when knowing is possible, why settle for believing? But again, the society would like you to believe, because believers are good people, obedient, law-abiding. They follow all formalities and etiquette, they are never trouble-makers. They simply follow the crowd, whichever crowd they happen to be in; they simply go with the crowd. They are not real men, they are sheep. Humanity has not yet arrived.
...............
A real man never believes; he learns. A real man never becomes knowledgeable; he always remains open, open to truth. And he always remembers that "It is not that truth has to adjust to me, but just vice versa: I have to adjust to truth." The believer tries to adjust truth to himself, the seeker adjusts himself to truth. Remember the difference; the difference is tremendous. One who believes, he says, "Truth should be like this, this is my belief."
..................
The believer cannot even trust his own experience. Even if truth is revealed, he will reject it, unless it fits with him. He is more important than truth itself: truth has an obligation to fit with him. He is the criterion, he is the decisive factor. This kind of man can never know truth; he is already prejudiced, poisoned.

The man who wants to know truth has to be capable of dropping all concepts about truth. Everything about truth has to be dropped. Only then can you know truth. Know well: to know about truth is not to know truth. Whatsoever you know may be utter nonsense; there is every possibility that it is utter nonsense. In fact people can be conditioned to believe any kind of nonsense; they can be convinced.
........................
And the best way to avoid truth is to believe. Then you need not look at it. Your eyes become full of belief; belief functions as dust on the eyes. You become closed into yourself, the belief becomes a prison around you. Belief closes you: then you are living within yourself in a windowless existence, and you can go on believing whatsoever you want to believe. But remember, it is belief, and belief is a lie.

Let me say that even when the truth is told to you, don't believe in it! Explore, inquire, search, experiment, experience: don't believe in it. Even when truth is conveyed to you, if you believe in it, you turn it into a lie. A truth believed is a lie, belief turns truth into a lie.

Believe in Buddha and you believe in a lie. Believe in Christ and you believe in a lie. Don't believe in Christ, don't believe in Buddha, don't believe in me. What I say, listen to it attentively, intelligently; experiment, experience. And when you have experienced, will you need to believe in it? There will be no doubt left, so what will be the point of belief? Belief is a way of repressing doubt: you doubt, hence you need belief.

The rock of belief represses the spring of doubt.

When you know, you know! You know it is so; there is no doubt left. Your experience has expelled all darkness and all doubt. Truth is: you are full of it. Truth never creates belief.
http://www.iosho.com/oBook/The%20Book%20Of%20Wisdom/chapter03.html

posted September 28, 2004 12:36 AM              

A typical jwhop attitude towards facts- "The opinions you have are wrong, but the opinions I have are factual. Give me facts! What, give you facts? Heck no, you can inform yourself. I don't have to back myself up with facts."

It's a tad, you know, hypocritical.

posted September 28, 2004 12:45 AM              

Let me ask a question: how many of you have ever put someone else under hypnosis? Show of hands?

I've done it. To five people, repeatedly. Basically hypnosis is putting the conscious mind to sleep so that the subconscious can be accessed directly.

Under hypnosis, the mind's processing and interpreting centers for the five senses -- from which we derive evidence to support our "facts" -- can be directly manipulated. In other words, you can produce specific hallucinations with all five senses.

One day I had a little fun with one of my "subjects". He was lying on his back on the floor while we were conversing, and complained of a yen for strawberries. So I said the word I had earlier implanted as a post-hypnotic suggestion to bring him back into a trance state. His eyes shut and he fell unconscious immediately, as usual. Under hypnosis, I told him that when he awoke, he would see a large, ripe strawberry sitting on his chest. If he picked it up, he would feel its weight, its texture. If he bit into it, he would taste it and smell it. Then I woke him up.

Funny, funny stuff. He started to talk, then noticed what was "sitting on his chest". He looked at me with a grin, said "you *sshole" (he was aware of my hypnotic experiments on him), and proceeded to pick nothing up off his chest and throw nothing out the window. Yet to him, it was quite real. He felt the strawberry that didn't exist; his muscles even took its "weight" into acount when throwing it, I'm sure.

Knowing that, that in the end even the information received by the five senses must be interpreted by the brain -- and that the brain can misinterpret it, either by accident or design -- how can we ever really be sure of this physical reality? How can I know that I'm not making all this up? The computer in front of me, the chair I'm sitting on, even all you other Knowflakes' posts, could be nothing more than the product of my own imagination. There is absolutely no way for me to ever prove to myself that any of this exists outside of myself. It could all be strawberries.

That idea scared me for a while.

But of course I got over it. In order to function in this world, I have to first assume that it is real.

posted September 28, 2004 01:10 AM            

My attitude is in direct proportion to the amount of BS here.

Not my duty under any form of debate or discussion to "prove" a fact to anyone. Inform yourself, you might learn something in the process.