Yes, but no one cares. Jihadis and their enablers and sympathizers aren’t vilified, marginalized, derided and shunned today; they’re celebrated. Only foes of jihad violence and Sharia oppression get that treatment.
As recently as 2010, there was published on YouTube a nasheed in which the author of “Peace Train” sang: “I’m praying to Allah to give us victory over the kuffar” (unbelievers). Does Yusuf/Cat still pray for victory over the kuffar? What kind of victory?
In 2004, Yusuf Islam was barred from entering the United States because of suspicions that he had been financing jihad terrorism. He acknowledged that some of his money may have gone to jihadis, but he claimed to have given money to them unwittingly.
Meanwhile, watch this video, in which he enthusiastically endorses the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death fatwa against Rushdie. Does he look as if he is being “framed” by a “sharp-toothed journalist”?
But will he ever come clean and apologize? Almost certainly not. Islamic supremacists never do. Whatever wrongdoing they commit is always someone else’s fault.
“The Meaning of Yusuf/Cat Stevens,” by Howard Fishman, Washington Post, September 20, 2021:
…Tracking the history of the controversy, I went back to the 1989 appearance that Stevens made on the British TV show “Hypotheticals.” Earlier that year, after Rushdie had officially been targeted because of his portrayal of the prophet Muhammad in his novel “The Satanic Verses,” Stevens had matter-of-factly confirmed that the Koran prescribes death as the punishment for blasphemy. Now, on “Hypotheticals,” Stevens was asked directly whether Rushdie deserved to die. “Yes, yes,” he replied, without much hesitation. Were Rushdie, a marked man, to come to him for help, how would he respond? With what he subsequently insisted was nothing more than an ill-advised attempt at dry humor, a straight-faced Stevens said: “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.” When asked whether he would participate in the burning of an effigy of the author, he replied that he would instead hope it were “the real thing.”
When the program aired, a furor ensued, compelling Stevens to issue a press release indicating that his comments had been manipulated in the editing room and taken out of context (this, despite the fact that the New York Times reported that Stevens had “watched a preview of the program today and said in an interview that he stood by his comments”). But the damage had been done. Radio stations boycotted Stevens’s music, and copies of his records were destroyed in public demonstrations.
“For many years, Yusuf Islam has been pretending he didn’t say the things he said in 1989, when he enthusiastically supported the Iranian terrorist edict against me and others,” Rushdie wrote to me in an email. “However, his words are on the record, in print interviews and on television programs. … I’m afraid Cat Stevens got off the peace train a long time ago.”…
Eva says
As a moslem, can he ever have been said to be on it?
gravenimage says
He wrote and sang that song before he was a Muslim, Eva. He converted to Islam in the late 1970s.
mtman2 says
Stevens had to/is a simpleton to buy into the Islamic Death-Cult.
JimJFox says
You don’t HAVE to be an imbecile but it helps. The other and more likely motivation/ attraction is to sadists and psychopaths, who find excitement and pleasure in disfigurement and murder.
somehistory says
Perhaps he was never really on the Peace Train.
So many today would probably act differently if Mr. Rushdie wrote his book last week and the raging devils in iran put out a hit on him. They might be afraid of being labeled as a “phobic” person caused by their “fear” and hatred of islam’s evils…or they just might not hate islam or fear it for its evils.
gravenimage says
Yes–I’ve wondered about this myself. Grimly, I imagine fewer in the west would condemn this savagery.
mgoldberg says
There is no muslim peace train… there is only a muslim submission train.
That is their theology. That is their history.
Derek says
Spot on mgoldberg.
mgoldberg says
There is no muslim ‘Peace Train’
There is only a muslim submission Train.
That is the theology, that is the history.
JGO says
This “train” is the same as the one that brought people to their deaths in the 40’s in the nazi death camps. Is this what the “Cat” had in mind???
CogitoErgoSum says
Have you EVER heard any of the people calling Islam a religion of peace talk about how the Suras in the Koran are not arranged in chronological order and how you need to understand how abrogation works before you REALLY can understand the message of the Koran? Why won’t they do that? Yeah, I think I know. They are either stupid or they are liars. I’m going to give Cat Stevens the benefit of the doubt and assume that, while he’s a very smart guy when it comes to music, he is a complete idiot when it comes to religion.
CogitoErgoSum says
No, on second thought I’m going to say he’s an idiot and a liar.
Jgo says
Bingo
gravenimage says
CogitoErgoSum, Cat Stevens–Yusuf Islam–is not some clueless naif who, say, converted to Islam after reading the poetry of Rumi. He has been quite clear that he supports the murder of critics of Islam.
CogitoErgoSum says
Yes, what was I thinking?
gravenimage says
You are right, CogitoErgoSum–there *are* some well-meaning but naive converts to Islam. They seldom last long befor leaving, though. Yusuf Islam has been a Muslim for almost 45 years now–far more years than he was an Infidel.
revereridesagain says
Cat Stevens deserves some sort of award for “Worst Life Choices Made By a 1970s Pop Star”. His top hit “Father and Son” is about his decision to “go away” and embrace Marxism, but he upped the ante and became a Slave of Allah instead. He’s still there, but then I imagine it would be hazardous to his health to become known as a famous pop star who had renounced the Shahada. He might find himself in very much the same position as… Salman Rushdie!
gravenimage says
’70s pop stars have made some pretty terrible life choices–but you are right, none worse than Cat Stevens.
tim gallagher says
There are many fairly pleasant religions that people can join, religions which seem to have an attitude of goodwill towards other human beings and which tell the members of the religion to be tolerant towards others. And then there is this vile, poisonous, violent ideology called Islam. I will never understand why any person freely chooses Islam as this clown, Cat Stevens, did. There has to be some nastiness lurking in the minds of all people who would actually choose islam when they could choose a better, more peaceful religion or none at all. I get it when people are born into islam and it is hard to leave it. I admire those Muslims who wake and do leave it behind. But I will never understand people who make a free choice to join Islam. It is so obvious how barbaric and intolerant and violent Islam fundamentally is.
gravenimage says
+1
Raja says
Tim Gallagher,
Islam is still “attractive” in a way, like how it is packaged and given to the “gullible”. In fact this art “work” is a patented and time tested method of the devil. All attractive things appear to be benign but not necessarily the outcome/results.
The blood-letting allah has many tricks up his sleeve. e.g: The Christian converts from Kerala of India were convinced that Jesus was respected in islam, but later ended up killing every Christian etc. I personally know some infidels who were disgruntled with life and the Islamic proselytes pestered them to convert. One was never at peace with his wife and these proselytes were in constant touch with him to pull him in. Another, a distant cousin of mine wrongfully thrashed by a Christian preacher was lured into islam, was also married off to some Muslim widow. He was lucky to escape from their clutches and that lady as he abandoned islam. Back then of course the ISIS infra was yet to be conceived. The Latinos are lured into islam with the deception that islam is the same as Catholicism. .The list is endless.
gravenimage says
Your friend was beaten by a Christian preacher? Terrible–and *highly* unusual–if this is the case. Muslims are far more likely to be violent.
Raja says
Gravenimage,
My distant cousin was unseated from a bench (without backrest) while praying in a church by some boy behind him, resulting in a fall on the floor. The Christian preacher not knowing the situation, wrongfully beat him and castigated him. That hurt him and was disgruntled with the church. This incidence was a golden opportunity for the Muslims to convert him by instilling hatred of Christianity in his heart.
My cousin is himself a Christian minister after leaving islam. (In India, those leaving islam are brutally assaulted, not killed as in some African nations).
gravenimage says
Raja, I am sorry to hear about this, especially since your cousin was not at fault (this reaction seems *way* over the top even if he had been). Glad to hear he did not continue to blame Christianity itself for this.
tim gallagher says
Thanks for the comment, Raja. You are no doubt right about how people, especially when young, can make weird decisions. People can be needy and vulnerable and are taken advantage of to get them to join cults or, indeed, islam. I just think Islam is so barbaric in so many ways, such as the child brides, the honour killings, the stoning people to death and on and on, and its basic hate filled attitude and violence towards non-Muslims that you would think that almost anyone would see that it is not something to join. I often think that many of the people who join Islam are pissed off with the world in general and they want to join a violent ideology and an ideology than approves of rape, and all sorts of evil behaviour. I’m a Christian, brought up a Catholic, and I am 71 years old, and I can tell you that I came across a few pretty vicious Christian Brothers who taught me at school. Pretty un-Christian sadists I’d say, one in particular comes to mind, though most were decent people. I can recall, ages ago, we had a parish priest who seemed like a tough, mean minded person too. You get some rotten eggs in Christianity, but i see Christianity as basically good and peaceful and the opposite to islam. Thanks for the +1, gravenimage.
ronald says
Jesus is respected in Islam as being a prophet of Allah. Christians therefore worship the wrong god. And since mankind must be purged of unbelief, the Christians [and any other unbeliever] may die. Islam is the is by far the biggest fascist organization in the world. Genocide is on the agenda, when the time is right
gravenimage says
Of course, the vicious “prophet Isa” is *nothing* like the Christian Jesus. His main role in Islam is to *slaughter Christians* in the last days.
tim gallagher says
I agree with your comment, ronald. I can see nothing good in Islam at all. It is a truly disgraceful, evil ideology, and if it disappeared from this world, we would be living in a far more pleasant way. gravenimage, I think Islam is the complete opposite of Christianity in every imaginable way. Everything about Islam seems vicious and it wallows in murderous violence. It is a very sick and evil ideology.
gravenimage says
Salman Rushdie: ‘I’m afraid Cat Stevens got off the peace train a long time ago’
……………
Rushdie is right. Despite the peacenik persona he still has for many, he is a pious Muslim who has called for the murder of Salman Rushdie and other “blaphemers”, and called for Islam’s victory over the Kuffar. He has never really retracted these statements.
PRCS says
This comment from that WaPo article pretty well sums up my feelings about that moron:
“I couldn’t even finish this article. I’m glad that Cat Stevens made a difference to him. I enjoyed his early music. Now, I don’t give a damn. He might as well have died. There is a price to pay for all things, such as being handed success and fame on a platter and then walking away from it to engage in a religion that suppresses women.”
PRCS says
Add Lew Alcindor, and a raft of others, to the moron list.
sidney penny says
He is starting his concerts again as Cat Stevens
gravenimage says
He is just tradng on his old name–he has not actually left Islam.
Trevor Loughlin says
Cat Stevens is merely being honest about the violent verses in the Quran, unlike some converts who try to cover up the true nature of this nasty book. He is merely trying to be an observant “good” Muslim by practicing the full set of commands. Unfortunately being a “good” Muslims seems to involve becoming a bad human being. However, I think it is juvenile to condemn someone’s scientific or artistic achievements on purely moral grounds.”Woke” mobs are behaving like fundamentalists.
seabird says
His conversion gives new meaning to his songs like; “the first cut is the deepest,
Baby I know, the first cut is the deepest”.
It would not surprise me in the least if he, or a new convert like that sinead o’conner kook blew themselves up at a concert as their final act.
ronald says
So before islam he was perverted also
gravenimage says
Maybe–but not because of this song. It was written by Rod Stewart, and is not about literal cutting. It is about a young man trying to love again after his first serious relationship ended sadly.
Westman says
From creative to creativeless. Having something to share with the world to nothing worth sharing and a soul shriveling so far as to consider murdering another human if a religious authority authorized it. How far is the fall into the 7th century, or, is that actually a fall into Hell?
Ronald says
Well said. Thanks
ronald says
Submit or die.
Because the whole human kind must submit. That is what the quran says
Giacomo Latta says
Mr. Islam should visit the new home of Islamic perfection, Afghanistan. I hear there’s an opening for a musician there as the previous one is no longer available for concerts for some reason.
Michael Casmer says
Yes, he converted to Islam years ago, but I wonder if he’s still receiving royalties from his songs????
gravenimage says
Yes, he is. I imagine many of these monies have ended up as Zakat funding Islam, including Jihad terror.
Lisa Tea says
Since Music is haram (forbidden) in Islam (sorry if this is misspelled I’ve only ever heard it said, not written), I’m surprised that any famous musician would consider converting to Islam. So what has the former Cat Stevens been doing the last forty years? The Taliban just outlawed music in Afghanistan and killed a folksinger, broke into and destroyed the instruments at a famous all female orchestra’s headquarters, the female members are now in hiding, I’ve also heard that several busloads of girl musicians were turned away from the Kabul airport during the evacuation even though they had passports and are now only heaven knows where.) I associate all this hatred for music to the two singing girls that Muhammad had killed for singing satirical songs about him. And wasn’t there also a female poet who wrote critical poems about him? Muhammad sent one of his companions to execute her too. She was murdered while nursing her baby in bed. So much for the religion of peace, er pieces.