Since he supported the death sentence of Salman Rushdie, I’m wondering what his position is on this whole Taliban affair?
Or does PeaceTrain Boy only take orders from the Ayatollah?
I think Yusuf Islam (as he now is) has actually got a functioning brain plus heart… on Oct 20th, for the Paul McCartney concert in NYC, he took up his guitar and played Peace Train for the first time in 22 years. I wish I’d seen it.
In his pre 9/11 interviews he comes across as a very warm human being. Post 9/11, even more so. But don’t take my word for it… read what the man himself has to say.
Please note that he points out quite clearly that “I never did support the Fatwa [against Salman Rushdie].”
Additionally, re 9/11 :
"Today, I am aghast at the horror of recent events and feel it a duty to speak out. Not only did terrorists hijack planes and destroy life last September, but also they hijacked the beautiful religion of Islam and split the brother and sisterhood of mankind.
The targeting of unsuspecting civilians going about their daily work was energized by nothing but blind irreligious hatred. Yet we should remember, this kind of atrocity has been a common occurrence, year upon year, in many lands. My memory of the prolonged suffering and death of two hundred thousand people in Bosnia at the end of last century is something that I cannot easily forget."
He’s a good bloke.
Read all about what Yusuf Islam (Cats’ new name) thinks:
http://www.catstevens.com/articles/00231/index.html
Re: Rushdie
“Suddenly the media tried linking me to supporting the Iran’s Fatwa on Salman Rushdie. The fact is that I never did support the Fatwa. Such is the irony. You wouldn’t ask a Christian to deny one of the Ten Commandments; equally, as a new Muslim, I couldn’t deny that the Quran, just like Leviticus in the Bible, forbade blasphemy and if there is no repentance, made it a capital offence.”
Re: Current events
"Today, I am aghast at the horror of recent events and feel it a duty to speak out. Not only did terrorists hijack planes and destroy life last September, but also they hijacked the beautiful religion of Islam and split the brother and sisterhood of mankind.
The targeting of unsuspecting civilians going about their daily work was energized by nothing but blind irreligious hatred."
There’s more, of course, but we’re supposed to keep copyrighted quotes brief.
Doh! Rueben, ya scooped me!
Ditto for me. My first 45 was Peace Train. Anyone have a link to a recording of his performance.
and in the same paragraph:
So which is it?
[Sorry Karellen!]
Janet O : Just a few sentences later he says “Clerics and extremists who call for the assassination of civilians outside the recognized bounds of the Islamic State without due process are wholly out of line with the limits and spirit of Islam.”
Ie, he is saying - clearly - that (a) [In Islam] blasphemy is a crime, and (b) that the fatwah was completely wrong. There is nothing incongruous in that, but the media sure loves to think so.
I’m not an expert though, so the above is slightly IMHO. I wonder if Muslim Guy is reading? Post here Muslim Guy!
[… and quietly hoping we don’t end up in GD …]
I heard that he was such a devout Muslim, that singing with musical accompaniment was forbidden. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just saying that is really surprising to me that he would perform while playing a guitar.
I don’t know Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens personally, but I recognize the trajectory of his personal development after converting. He referred to his being a “new Muslim” at the time. That means he was taking advice from mullas and following what they said. In the years since then, he’s learned to think for himself from the original sources. BTDT.
The Qur’an is constantly reminding people to look at reality and think for themselves.
“Haven’t you looked at the signs in the heavens and the earth?”
“Will you not reflect?”
“Will you not ponder the meaning?”
“This is for people who have hearts than can understand.”
There are so many reminders like this all through the Qur’an. The mullas want you to overlook these and just follow what they say. But anyone who reads the Qur’an and applies what it says will eventually begin to think for herself or himself.
The Qur’an, when you examine it thoroughly, does not say capital punishment for apostates. It just is not in there at all in any way, shape, or form. Liberal Muslims argue that this capital punishment for apostasy cannot be justified from the sources of Islamic law — especially since the Qur’an says La ikraha fi al-din (2:256) ‘There is to be no compulsion in the religion’.
But the mullas have come up with this rule somehow. Cat/Yusuf was listening to them and repeating what they had told him. Even though he had the sense to recognize that even if — just supposing if, for the sake of argument — the capital punishment rule were valid in theory, there was still no validity in that death sentence pronounced by Khomeini. I remember at the time, in 1989, the non-Muslim world was all in a tizzy about the death fatwa while the injury to the world’s 1 billion Muslims—ordinary people who do not call for death fatwas—was completely ignored. Nobody cared how much Muslims had been hurt by The Satanic Verses in the first place. The usual media frenzy obscuring the major issue. There was possibly going to be some constructive dialogue between Islam and the West until Khomeini upstaged everyone and the original issue was forgotten.
Anyway, since then Yusuf/Cat has gotten out from under the influence of mullas and rethought Islam for himself. He has realized that despite what mullas say there is no basis for banning musical instruments like guitars when you use them for good and positive songs like “Peace Train.”
What was annoying at the time of the Rushdie thing is that every blow-dried, brain-dead talking-head, and every moron radio-jock would play Yusif Islam’s hesitant statement “Yes…the Koran does say blasphemy is a captial offense <obvious edit/cut> I believe the Koran” and then cut to Peace Train. :rolleyes: Very good. They’d learned about the mysteries of “irony”. Now if they’d learned about accuracy in reporting, they would have been two steps ahead of the game. (I heard the complete quote maybe three times, and the little ironic clip about a billion times, back then)
That aside, I’m glad that Stevens/Islam is getting a fairer shake in the media this time than the blatant smear job he got last time.
BTW WIGGUM: In the song “A is for Allah” he performs with instrumentation. I don’t know if he’s playing or if that matters, but…
Fenris
Islam didn’t perform at the WTC benefit. However, in the show leading up to it, he was interviewed by VH1 (taped from London). He said pretty much what everyone here has been reported, then ended by singing “Peace Train” a capella (i.e., no guitar). It aired about 15 minutes before the concert started.
What injury? I never read the book. I seem to remember that it was considered very insulting to Mohammed. However there is a big difference between satirizing or otherwise insulting a revered individual and making accusations or threats against a whole class of people. The former may be infuriating, but the latter leads to bigotry and violence.
Ironically, before Khomeini got into the act, the Satanic Verses had been reviewed (even favorably) and discussed in Iran. It was provocative in many ways, but would probably have stirred up no more trouble than Kazantzakis’s Last Temptation of Christ (with some very reactionary calls of blasphemy, but most people choosing to view it as a work of literature and arguing its merits separately). Certainly, many Muslims did find it offensive, but many others did not. Unfortunately, one of the reactionary responses came from Khomeini with his serious overreaction and the actual discussion within the Muslim community was lost.
In the introduction to Karen Armstrong’s book Muhammad, on page 12, she writes
A billion Muslim were injured by* The Satanic Verses?*
That’s just bizarre. No one was injured. Just as no one was injured by* The Last Temptation of Christ.*
They were both merely works of fiction.
Let’s have a sense of proportion.
I have read the book (as opposed to so many people condemning it) and I don’t think the possible blasphemy is what enraged Khomeini. Instead it was a very satirical portrait of a mullah living in exile in London. A man who is so holy that he is almost as holy as Muhammed himself and I found it very obvious whom Rushdie was referring to.
Re: Peace Train. Dolly does it better.