NEW YORK, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The musician formerly known as Cat Stevens says he went through a "terrible ordeal" after his transatlantic flight was diverted last week.
Yusuf Islam, the name Stevens adopted when he became a Muslim in the 1970s, was met by FBI agents when the London-to-Washington flight he was on instead landed in Bangor, Maine, after his name was found on a government anti-terror no-fly list.
"The door opened and in walked six gigantically tall, you know, uniformed officers, and they kind of came to me directly, and said, 'Are you Yusuf Islam?' And I thought, what is going on?" Islam told ABC in an interview to be aired Friday on the network's "20/20."
He said agents' questions centered on the spelling of his name. "Well, kind of how to spell my name, and they kept on repeating that question actually and saying, 'are you sure you don't spell it Y-O-U-S?' I said, 'no, I spell it Y-U-S-U-F'," he said.
A Homeland Security Department spokesman says Islam is on the no-fly list because new intelligence information "further heightens concern" about the former folk singer, whose hit songs included "Wild World" and "Morning Has Broken."
