Fatwa against Salman Rushdie
mail9...@lemurtastic.com
Yesterday I expressed skepticism at Yusuf Islam's claim that he never
supported the death fatwa against Salman Rushdie. Jihad Watch reader
Tex emailed me this late last night:
Mr. Islam is lying through his teeth. I saw him on at least two
separate occasions around '89/90 openly advocating the death penalty
against Rushdie.
The most telling was his appearance on the 'Geoffrey Robertson's
Hypotheticals' program, a sort-of round table discussion/debate
dealing with the fatwah.
Islam was asked specifically what he would do if he came upon Rushdie.
He said he would telephone the ayatollah and make sure Rushdie's
whereabouts were made known to people "who would do more damage to him
than I could".
Tex is right: see this [b]New York Times story from May 23, 1989[/b]:
"Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie," by Craig R.
Whitney (thanks to all who sent this in):
[b]LONDON, 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.[/b]
Interested observer
issue these fatwas- BUT- there's no doubt his music was genius- level
stuff. Even today when I listen to "Tea for the Tillerman" the music is
still as great and powerful as it ever was.
I remember back in the 1970s he was running around here (Calif)
insisting that he had leukemia. It's only a fine line between a genius
and a madman, and Cat stevens crossed it a while ago...
Now where'd I leave my rolling papers?