Funny how they never mention “Yusuf Islam” in this article. I do hope that at the ceremony Yusuf will play the nasheed above. A nasheed is a song praising Allah or Islam in some way. Nasheeds are usually sung a cappella or with percussion accompaniment only, and according to most Islamic authorities they’re the only kind of music allowed under Islamic law. At minute 2:02, Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens, sings:
What are you saying?
What are you saying?
I’m praying to Allah
To give us victory
Over the kuffar.
“I’m praying to Allah to give us victory over the kuffar” (unbelievers)? When have you ever heard a Jew or a Christian praying for victory over the unbelievers? The supremacism and hatred is open and unapologetic, and especially piquant coming the former Mr. Peace Train himself, who has for years cultivated an image as a benign, peaceful, cuddly, peace-and-love-hippie Muslim.
He wasn’t always so image-conscious, however. Although he denies it now, in 1989 he enthusiastically endorsed the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa against Salman Rushdie for insulting Islam: “Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie,” by Craig R. Whitney in the New York Times, May 23, 1989:
TONDON [sic], May 22 — 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.”
The singer, who adopted the name Yusuf Islam when he converted to Islam, made the remark during a panel discussion of British reactions to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s call for Mr. Rushdie to be killed for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his best-selling novel ”The Satanic Verses.” He also said that if Mr. Rushdie turned up at his doorstep looking for help, ”I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like.”
”I’d try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is,” said Mr. Islam, who watched a preview of the program today and said in an interview that he stood by his comments….
Here is the video:
And much more recently, he is praying for victory over the kuffar, while being embraced by the rock glitterati and lauded everywhere — and now he is going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Baby, baby, it’s a wild world indeed.
“Nirvana, Kiss will join Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” by Patrick Ryan for USA Today, December 17 (thanks to Bill):
Calling Dr. Love! Kiss is set to join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside other new inductees Nirvana, Hall & Oates, Peter Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens.
The 29th annual induction ceremony will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 10, and will be open to the public (as it has for recent ceremonies in Los Angeles and Cleveland). The event will air as an HBO special in May….
For a second year, the Rock Hall implemented fan voting in choosing this year’s inductees, which was available on its official site, Rolling Stone and USA TODAY, and generated nearly 1.4 million votes this year. The five artists with the highest number of votes (three of whom will be inducted) made up a fans’ ballot, which counted as a single vote in choosing this year’s honorees.
Among fans, Kiss (239,000 votes) and Nirvana (218,000) enjoyed easy victories. Two artists that failed to receive induction despite swells of public support were Yes (151,000) and Deep Purple (166,000), beaten out in the overall balloting by Hall & Oates (113,000), Peter Gabriel (111,000), Linda Ronstadt (85,000) and Cat Stevens (75,000)….
Cat Stevens. One of the biggest-selling artists of the early ’70s, the mellow British songsmith crafted introspective, tranquil tunes such as Peace Train, Wild World and The First Cut Is the Deepest.