From: rivk@ellis.uchicago.edu (nora gayle rivkis)
Subject: Re: Yousef Islam
Keywords: To Adam
Reply-To: rivk@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 15:14:20 GMT

In article <4874@copper.Denver.Colorado.EDU> aaldoubo@copper.denver.colorado.edu (Shaqeeqa) writes:
>Islam in 1990, per your inquiry:
>
>>In article <1993Jan3.180442.23504@newshub.ccs.yorku.ca> wc4209@writer.yorku.ca (Irene Berkovich) writes:
>>
>>I don't think you get it.  He would have had bad feelings if it were
>>the case that Cat Stevens converted from Judaism to Islam (or to
>>Christianity, or to Zoroastroism (?sp), or Buddism etc) since it is
>>considered a cardinal sin in Judaism to convert to another religion.
>>He was not singling out Islam.
>
>Sorry, I obviously misunderstood because it was unclear.  What is the
>punishment for such a "cardinal sin" of converting from Judaism to
>another religion?

Isn't any. Judaism doesn't punish sin; it just disapproves of it, and
believes it makes the individual a lesser person, which is all most
people need to do their best to avoid doing it. The worst someone will
get for converting isn't a punishment but an effect -- they will probably
find themselves ostracized by the Jewish community, which they have rejected
and hence which sees it as their right to reject the person in turn.

>>Also as I remember it, Yousef Islam was allowed into Israel when he
>>came to visit.  He even made the requisite propaganda speeches after
>>his visit criticizing the Israel occupation blah, blah, blah.
>
>This is from an article in the Rocky Mountain News of July, 1990:
>
>	"Islam irked by airport incident"
>
>	"Former pop singer Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam,
>	said yesterday in London that Israeli authorities expelled
>	him without explanation after holding him and his son at
>	the airport and searching his belongings.  Islam said in a
>	statement he endured a 'three-hour ordeal' while his luggage
>	was 'ripped apart'.  He said he arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport
>	on July 1 with his 5-year-old son, Muhammad, to attend a
>	Moslem folk festival."
>
>Now let's see your evidence to support your statement.
>
>After such an experience do you think he should praise Israel?  Or is
>every Muslim, who wants to enter the Holy Land, suspected of being a
>terrorist?  

<chuckle> Anisa, **EVERYONE** who enters Israel is suspected of being
a terrorist and subjected to the same thing. When I arrived in Israel,
with a Jewish appearance and name and travelling with a Jewish organi-
zation, I went through the same three-hour hold-and-search. It's routine.
For everyone, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Shinto, or Martian.

>His statements aside from this ordeal, stems from the anger
>of the injustices on Palestinian Muslims from the Israeli government
>and its oppressive policies.  As a good and devote Muslim, he certainly
>takes the following hadith to heart, "Whosoever of you sees an evil action,
>let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then with
>his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart - and that
>is the weakest of faith."

He's allowed. Don't take this for granted. In which of the Arab countries
would the penalty for public criticism of the government and calls for
the dismantling of the state be punished as lightly as by asking a non-
resident to refrain from returning? I won't even suggest what would happen
if such statements were made by a Jew, as Jews are not allowed to set foot
in Muslim countries in the first place. If Israel were handling the situ-
ation as any other country in the middle east would, Yousef Islam would
never have been allowed into the country at all, and if he were and then
said such things about the government he would have been summarily killed.
Instead, he was given the same treatment all visitors receive at the air-
port, and when he said such things about the government he was asked not
to come back again. And you're accusing *us* of human rights violations?

I know what the problem is, folks. Living in the west is spoiling all of
us rotten.

Re: the "justice" of the Rushdie murder contract, btw -- honest question:
Does Islam allow for repentance?

>Anisa

	-Naomi
-- 
Oseh shalom b'imromav, hu ya'aseh shalom, aleinu v'al kol Yisrael.