Yusuf

Poor Cat Stevens. On the strength of the below defense of him, I went to 
catstevens.com, clicked the THINK link, and got a pop up, "Yusuf Islam: Mountain 
of Light". I then click the "Islam Spiritual Domain" link and get this nice 
information from him:

"Dress & Dietary Requirements
In Islam, clothing has two purposes; to cover the body and to modestly 
beautify one's appearance. Men are to dress modestly, not imitating women. Women's 
clothing must cover all of the body including the head, and should not be tight 
or transparent. 
For a Muslim, there are two types of food and drink; Halal (lawful) and Haram 
(unlawful). 
Unlawful, forbidden (Haram) food and drink includes: 

*Meat from dead animals that died naturally through accidents [except fish], 
or by strangling, falling, beating, or being killed by wild animals. 
*Blood that has poured forth (as distinguished from the blood adhering to 
flesh or organs). 
*Flesh of swine, such as bacon or pork, including all products and 
by-products (lard, pepsin, gelatin, etc.) prepared from swine. Only vegetable oil is 
used for frying and in the preparation of bread, salad dressing, desserts, 
muffins, other bakery products, etc. 
*Food upon which any other name has been invoked, besides that of God. 
*Intoxicants, including all types and varieties of alcohol and intoxicating 
drugs."


Looks like it's time to get out my burkha. And I'll have to drop my 
cross-dressing male friends immediately if I'm to hang out with Yusuf.

------

As for the media (also the main proliferator of his own career hype and self 
promotion) being the source of the info about his comments on Salman Rushdie's 
book, he didn't have to open up his yap to the Christian Science Monitor on 
March 8, 1989:

http://www.itnsource.com/en/Search/ShotListNonDigitised/?ref=%2fRTV%2f1989%2f0
3%2f08%2fBGY603060095.htm

Perhaps if he didn't want to be "misinterpreted" he didn't have to complain 
that the three-hour taping of a 53- minute British television show called A 
Satanic Scenario in 1989 omitted the Muslim justification for punishment of 
"blasphemy":

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/18/specials/rushdie-cat.html   >>>The 
musician known as Cat Stevens said in a British television program to be broadcast 
next week that rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the 
author Salman Rushdie, ''I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing.'' <<<<<<<

Here's some of his mush-mouthed backtracking as reported in imdb.com:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0828310/bio  --   >>Nearly a decade later, Stevens 
claimed he was highly misquoted, that he didn't support the Ayatollah's 
sentence. Rather, he merely reitereated the Koran's teachings about those who 
"defame the prophet." Stevens says he bears no ill will towards Rushdie, and did 
not wish for him to be killed.<<

Oh, I see the difference now.

However I do beleive he has indeed promoted peace since 9/11 and deservedly 
won a libel suit in 2005: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4268651.stm

I liked his spiritual-oriented type of work from the 1970s prior to finding 
out he has morphed into supporting the fundamentalist burkha-wearing, 
freedom-of-speech-repressing side of Islam, which is a letdown for me. But I'll check 
out what he's put out this year sometime. I'm glad he's working for tolerance 
among the fundamentalists he's around nowadays. That's a very worthwhile thing 
for him to be doing; it helps everyone in a way he could not if he were not 
living in that way of life.

I'm not writing this to cut down anyone's post, just listing a few things I 
learned when I researched him after reading the below. I think it's an 
interesting topic and there's nothing wrong with anyone's comments in the thread. I 
didn't know much about what he's been up to till the topic motivated me to do 
some reading, so you guys posting knew a lot more about him than I did.


In a message dated 11/15/2006 12:48:23 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[email protected] writes:
What I have heard him say is that he was misquoted.  The fact is that  what 
we have all heard about that incident came through the media and most of us  
know how that goes.  The man did just receive Britain's  "Man of Peace  
Award" 
in 2004 a month after being refused entry to the U.S. because he was on  the 
"No-Fly" list.  So, I think it is fair to say that there are  conflicting 
opinions of his character.  The U.S. government did admit their  mistake and 
he is 
no longer on that list.


In a message dated 11/15/2006 9:28:14 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
[email protected] writes:

You mean  the peace and love musician of the 70s who publicly supported the 
calls for  assassination of Salman Rushdie in the 80s?

On 11/14/06, [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])   <[email protected]_ 
(mailto:[email protected]) > wrote:  
Is  anyone else excited about the release of Yusuf Islam's (Cat Stevens)  new
record?