Richard Thompson was a founding member of the influential group Fairport Convention, so he is definitely famous among people who like sixties folk music.
Ok guys, I bought a ticket. I guess I don’t care about that other stuff.
Which Charles Manson on guitar?
Why not?
In most of them, Harold is trying to discourage girls his mom is trying to set him up with, via some spectacular stunts. Following what Ii believe is the last one, his mother is giving Harold a withering look after the girl runs away and Harold (Bud Cort) turns to look into the camera - sort of breaking the fourth wall - with an increasingly wonderful and dimpled grin - as the soundtrack blasts into Cat Stevens “I think I see the Light”
One of my favourite movies.
The “man in the sky” exists in his religion, but that is not the nature of the offense.
As I’ve noted elsewhere, I’m not a supporter of the death penalty. I can oppose the death penalty, without the trite misrepresentation of Islamic orthopraxy.
On a complete tangent, let me say that it feels like a mistake for that Wikipedia article to refer to him as ‘Islam’. I understand the convention of referring to a person by their last name, particularly for the English, but I would have said that the nisbah ‘Islam’ was more in the nature of an adjective than a noun.
So…you going to the concert or not?
That’s how he refers to himself including the slash
I frequently see him referred to as “Cat Stevens /Yusuf”, is that the “slash” you mean? I’ve never seen anywhere he refers to himself as “Stevens/Islam”, I guess you mean band poster and concert publicity? Even so, I think referring to Stevens/Islam makes more intrinsic sense than just calling him “Islam” as the Wikipedia text does.
If he comes to Australia…
I’ve got no personal sympathy with Islam: I’m just as inherently racist, chauvinist, and xenophobic as the next guy, and I’d rather live in country full of people exactly the same as me. But I’m not “cancel culture”, and I admire my (late) mothers openness to other cultures and other people.
Today I learned that Cat Stevens and Ray Stevens are not the same person.
For the longest time, I thought CS/YI’s problem was mental illness, and that was why he went off the deep end, religiously speaking. There were references way back in my high school years to his taking a break due to illness and time spent in a facility of some sort.
I mean, really - “I feel the power growing in my hair.” If that’s not a description of the manic phase of bipolar disorder, I dunno what is.
BUT. His sanatorium time, or whatever you want to call it, was apparently due to tuberculosis, of all things.
So given that he is apparently not suffering from a biologically/brain-chemistry-based disorder, I’m not particularly inclined to cut him a break. Aside from the Rushdie fatwa matter, which is terrible on its own, I have been disturbed for years at his founding of an Islamic school for BOYS. Only BOYS. Did I mention that his educational largess did not include girls? I vaguely recall his defense of only founding a school for boys due to something in the Koran, or whatever. Color me unimpressed.
Huh, according to the Wikipedia entry, if I understand it correctly, he founded three interconnected schools: a coed primary school, and two high schools, one for girls and one for boys.
A country full of people exactly the same as each other would be my definition of hell on Earth, and few people would really want to live in such a location. No matter what the level of racism, chauvinism and xenophobia may be in the ‘next guy’, we should all try our damnest to reduce these poisons in every country in the world.
And as far as blasphemy goes, that is a right and a freedom that everyone should welcome, no matter what Cat Stevens says. God, if She exists, is much too big and too busy to worry about what a few humans say about Her, and She probably appreciates the criticism.
You have really lost the thread. The problem is that Steven’s supported the call for the murder of someone here on earth for writing a book. He did so publicly and then that person was brutally attacked. Then Steven’s recanted after the attack when it was too late.
You do realize that Stevens support of the fatwa was him calling for the murder of someone for not thinking exactly as he did? So you support the violent suppression of free thought to demonstrate your support for free thought. I’m not sure you’ve thought this through.
I’m aware of all that, and it is entirely consistent with my post. Rushdie has a right to be as blasphemous as he likes, without Stevens supporting the call for his murder. In most cases blasphemy is nothing to do with any god, but all to do with insulting established religion, and insulting established religion is a noble cause.
In my circle, the “next guy” isn’t racist, xenophobic or chauvinist AT ALL. I don’t know what your nearest next guy is like, but I’m thinking I don’t want to be around them?
Years ago, I watched a profile program about Stevens (it might well have been VH1’s Behind the Music). Given that that may not have necessarily been an unbiased documentary, the sense I have is that he is (or, at least was, in the 1970s) not only kind of odd, but was doing a lot of exploration of his spirituality, looking, I suspect, for some sort of truth or revelation which resonated with him – he got involved with (and discarded) a lot of different approaches.
When he discovered Islam, and decided that it spoke to him, he clearly went all-in, and clearly focused in on the more conservative elements of Islam – hence, deciding to follow the guidance of conservative teachers who told him that secular music wasn’t allowable, as well as his statements in support of the fatwa against Rushdie.
I also have the sense that he was (and is) a bit naive about the impact of his statements and actions, and probably a little too trusting – both of the intentions of the media when he gives interviews, as well as the intentions of the more conservative elements of his faith with which he has dealt.
tl;dr: I don’t think that he suffers from mental illness, but I do think that he has some personality traits which have led him into a certain path, and which make him susceptible to being exploited or misled by others.
Yeah, a cursory search is not giving enough details for me to confirm what I remember - it just says that his first school was founded in 1983 and is currently co-ed. I’m glad that his efforts are inclusive of girls now. However, I’m fairly certain that he started only supporting education for boys. I’m not going to bother researching it, and I could certainly be wrong, but I don’t think so.
There is seemingly a vague assumption running through this thread that some people might be critical of Yusuf Islam simply because he is a convert to Islam. Perhaps there are people out there who feel that way, but let me emphatically state I am not one of them. Most of my adult life prior to retirement was spent in two of the largest Muslim countries in the world, Egypt and Indonesia. After living and working alongside devout followers of Islam for many years, I can attest to the fact that your average Muslim is no better or worse than your average follower of Christianity. People are just people, and most of the Indonesians and Egyptians I knew were kind, gentle, and hospitable to a fault. Yusuf Islam deserves censure not because of his religion, but because of his support of the fatwa.