10:16pm UK, Wednesday September 22, 2004

Peace activist and singer/songwriter Cat Stevens is being deported from the US after being denied entry because his name appeared on a security "watch list".

57 Cat Stevens singer Muslim Islam peacenik

Yusef Islam

A transatlantic flight he was travelling on to Washington DC was diverted under FBI orders and the former pop star was escorted from the plane.        

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said the singer was denied access to the US "on national security grounds" and would be returned to Britain.        

But authorities have given no indication why the Muslim convert - now known as Yusaf Islam - has been barred from the country.             

Flight 919 from London to Washington diverted 600 miles to Bangor International Airport in Maine on Tuesday, landing at around 7.30pm British time, after US security officials were told Stevens was aboard.             

United Airlines officials in London initially failed to spot his name on the watch list, the TSA said.             

Passengers, including British pop veterans Marillion, were at first told the diversion was due to refuelling. It eventually arrived in Washington six hours late.               

Steve Hogarth, 45, of Marillion, said: "I (then) met a security guard who said the two people escorted off the plane were Cat Stevens and his daughter."               

Mr Hogarth added: "I was really stunned. Everybody knows he converted to the Muslim faith. He is a pacifist and a songwriter."               

Stevens, who was denied access to Israel four years ago, was detained and questioned, the TSA said. His 21-year-old daughter was allowed into the US.             

A spokesman for United Airlines said the flight was diverted "to keep the aircraft from entering the north east corridor airspace".             

Cat Stevens had a string of hits in the 1960s and 1970s, including Wild World and Morning Has Broken.             

He abandoned his music career in the late 1970s and changed his name after being persuaded by Muslim teachers that his lifestyle was forbidden by Islamic law.