Originally posted by: DrPizza
Tis a shame that so many people think he's gone wacky, simply because he converted to another religion following a near death experience. And, it's a shame that so many people seem biased against Islam.
he's nuts. there is no bias against islam, only reality that it is unlike other religions in that it is worse. muslims themselves will tell you it isn't like other religions, its a way of life, it covers everything like a cancer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens#Salman_Rushdie_controversy
"Salman Rushdie controversy
On February 21, 1989 Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston University in London about his journey to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie's execution. He claims to have only stated the legal consequences from the Qur'an - that blasphemy is a capital offense - and not actually have made any claims of support for the fatwa. Newspapers quickly denounced Yusuf Islam's support for a possible assassination of Rushdie. The next day he released a statement saying that he was not personally encouraging anybody towards vigilantism.[22]
However, on May 23, 1989, the New York Times reported on comments Yusuf Islam had made on a British television courtroom-style program, Hypotheticals,[23] in an episode ("A Satanic Scenario") that had already been recorded to be broadcast the following week, and that Islam had in a later interview reaffirmed the comments he made:
[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.[24]
[If Rushdie turned up at my 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.[24]
On March 8 1989, while speaking in London's Regents Park Mosque, when asked by a Christian Science Monitor reporter how he would "cope with the idea of killing a writer for writing a book" he is reported to have replied:
In Islam there is a line between let's say freedom and the line which is then transgressed into immorality and irresponsibility and I think as far as this writer is concerned, unfortunately, he has been irresponsible with his freedom of speech. Salman Rushdie or indeed any writer who abuses the prophet, or indeed any prophet, under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. It's got to be seen as a deterrent, so that other people should not commit the same mistake again.[25]
He added that if Rushdie should manage to escape the death sentence he would still have to "face God on the day of judgement."[25]
He has never retracted his statements about Rushdie, but, in a 2000 Rolling Stone[26] interview, he was asked to explain his position on the fatwa controversy and said:
I'm very sad that this seems to be the No. 1 question people want to discuss. I had nothing to do with the issue other than what the media created. I was innocently drawn into the whole controversy. So, after many years, I'm glad at least now that I have been given the opportunity to explain to the public and fans my side of the story in my own words. At a lecture, back in 1989, I was asked a question about blasphemy according to Islamic Law, I simply repeated the legal view according to my limited knowledge of the Scriptural texts, based directly on historical commentaries of the Qur'an. The next day the newspaper headlines read, "Cat Says, Kill Rushdie." I was abhorred, but what could I do? I was a new Muslim. If you ask a Bible student to quote the legal punishment of a person who commits blasphemy in the Bible, he would be dishonest if he didn't mention Leviticus 24:16[27].
Furthermore, he states his position on his personal spiritual website, starting as follows[28]:
I never called for the death of Salman Rushdie; nor backed the Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini - and still don?t. The book itself destroyed the harmony between peoples and created an unnecessary international crisis.
When asked about my opinion regarding blasphemy, I could not tell a lie and confirmed that - like both the Torah and the Gospel - the Qur?an considers it, without repentance, as a capital offense. The Bible is full of similar harsh laws if you?re looking for them[29]. However, the application of such Biblical and Qur?anic injunctions is not to be outside of due process of law, in a place or land where such law is accepted and applied by the society as a whole...
There was backlash over the Rushdie incident at the time, including the band 10,000 Maniacs, who had recorded "Peace Train" on their 1987 In My Tribe album, deleting the song from subsequent pressings of their album as a protest against the remarks he made."
