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The Spectacle Blog
In light of Jon Stewart featuring Yusuf Islam, aka Cat Stevens, at the “Rally to Restore Sanity” on the mall today, it’s worth remembering the insanity that this man has endorsed.
“He must be killed,” Stevens/Islam said in 1989 of Salman Rushdie, when asked about the Ayatollah Khomenei’s infamous fatwa. “The Qur’an makes it clear - if someone defames the prophet, then he must die.” He has neve retracted his statements about Rushdie; instead, he has tried to pretend he never advocated what he advocated (and often simply refuses to comment on the issue). But as Rushdie put it in a 2007 letter to the Sunday Telegraph:
Cat Stevens wanted me dead
However much Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam may wish to rewrite his past, he was neither misunderstood nor misquoted over his views on the Khomeini fatwa against The Satanic Verses (Seven, April 29). In an article in The New York Times on May 22, 1989, Craig R Whitney reported Stevens/Islam saying on a British television programme “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’.”
He added 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’.”
In a subsequent interview with The New York Times, Mr Whitney added, Stevens/Islam, who had seen a preview of the programme, said that he “stood by his comments”.
Let’s have no more rubbish about how “green” and innocent this man was.
Salman Rushdie, New York
Here is video of the TV appearance that Rushdie refers to.
View all comments (19) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by John Tabin
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Landrum, Christopher | 10.30.10 @ 11:21PM
Thank Allah no one gives a rat poop about Salmon Rushdie. Thank Yahweh no Anglo Americans ever read his books. Thank Buddha Americans never allowed Salmon's sushi to be shoved down their throats. Thank Satan for Dan Brown.
JohnD| 10.31.10 @ 12:16AM
I believe Cat Stevens also once said the following:
"Ooooh, baby baby, it's a wild world."
Richard| 10.31.10 @ 10:31AM
... and it's hard to get by on just a smile. Something the twin idiots Colbert and Stewart ought to think about.
bert| 10.31.10 @ 1:19AM
So, JOhn Leibowitz ( Stewart) a self loathing west side lear jet Jewish nutter invites a Jew hating Muslim radical to sing at a phony "fight the sanity " rally ?
So, when do we acknowledge that the media elites are mentally ill leftists ?
Dixie Pixie| 10.31.10 @ 3:11PM
Bert, may I be so presumptuous as to explain the Quid Pro Quo.
Obama needs a October Surprise. So he does a “Quid pro Quo” by appearing on the Daily Show and Mythbusters. They then put on a rally days away from the election. The youth vote rallies to save the Democrats from certain Doom. That was the Plan.
The backup plan was to invert Sanity and Insanity to make Common Sense Conservatives look Insane for opposing Peaceful Benevolent Liberalism.
Unfortunately for Liberalism, Most people saw a Rock and Comedy Concert by a bunch of self-important delusional silly liberals. Only Liberals still believe the “Conservatives as Insane Moral Neanderthals” meme.
Renard| 10.31.10 @ 2:01AM
Cat who? In the hat? Wishes he was a has been, but really never wuz.
Tim*| 10.31.10 @ 5:14AM
Uh Oh !
Cat Steven's, I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun :
So you think you can push me around
And make me run
Well I'm gonna tell you now
I'm gonna get me a gun
I'm gonna get me a gun
And all those people who put me down
You better get ready to run,
Cuz I'm gonna get me a gun
Oldefarte| 10.31.10 @ 9:47AM
No offense, but anyone giving credence to someone like Stevens/Islam maybe should consider putting more lightbulbs inside their box. What next, discussing what Madonna has said?????????
Tim*| 10.31.10 @ 11:05AM
Yeah, who's Stevens/Islam think he is, Stewart/Leibowitz ?
PattyMor| 10.31.10 @ 11:40AM
How did Cat Stevens gain entry into the U.S.? Wasn't he previously denied entry. What changed?
Dixie Pixie| 10.31.10 @ 2:34PM
Gentleman you apparently missed the best part where John Stewart introduced the formally named Cat Stevens as “Joseph sometimes pronounced Yusuf” thus implying he was actually Jewish.
In short, John Stewart did his best to conceal a Muslin identity by implying a Jewish identity not knowing this action is a direct contradiction of Sanity.
Another moment in Liberal Sanity is where Stephen Colbert unleashes imaginary peanut butter coated bees upon the audience?
Or was that Liberal Fear plus Liberal Sanity.
Achemd Bin Ali| 10.31.10 @ 4:28PM
The day is coming soon (Allah be praised) that your pop icons will submit to Shariah. I especially cannot wait for the day all of your sluts and tramps come over. Just think of all of those blond hair bimbos submiting meekly to real men -not those feminized Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt types. Real arab men know how to get obedience!
Tim*| 10.31.10 @ 7:42PM
Pretend Sand Monkey Alert !
caitlin| 11.1.10 @ 9:57AM
Why is that the only thing you had to say? Something negative. I don't know what Glenn Beck's post (Stewart) rally reaction was, but he didn't say anything negative about it when it was being planned. I felt that Stewart's closing thoughts were positive as Beck's were at his rally. And by zeroing in on a negative, you're doing exactly what Stewart was referring to in his ants under the magnifying glass analogy.
Plus, you're fueling the fire that conservatives are narrow minded and have no interest in any other viewpoint even if it might help the country. And Stewart is correct in his assessment about the media; how it inflames more than informs. Every news company is in the business to make money so they compete for audiences. The left wing sources are as bad as the right.
Stewart's bottom line message was naive to be sure, but IMO no more than Beck's call to restore honor by turning to God. Neither Beck's nor Stewart's rallies offered any concrete solutions, but a calling for all Americans to just be nice.
So Cat Stevens is a jerk. Are all conservatives above throwing stones?
Noel| 11.1.10 @ 3:09PM
Before the rally, I had no idea who this person was, and when i looked this up, i admittedly was somewhat shocked that he's say this. On more review, I'm going to lump this statement in with O'Donnel's statements about masturbation. Why, you might ask? Both of these statements were said in a time these people were getting to know the nuances of their religion more closely, and they were blindly following everything their scriptures taught them. I'd imagine they both recognize their statements are wrong now, and that you need to put in intelligent thought when reading your scriptures for your religion.
Also, he was signing a song titled: "Peace Train". He may not be perfect, but his song is a call for world PEACE! He may be Muslim, but that doesn't lump him in as a terrorist. There are 1.5 BILLION muslims in the world, and the terrorists compose of an extremely small segment of their population.
Lamia| 11.1.10 @ 3:18PM
So Noel classes support for murder with... opposition to masturbation.
What a wanker.
Blair | 11.22.10 @ 2:52PM
How can anyone claim to "restore" something that our history proves we never possessed? I agree that comedians are usually closer to the truth than politicians, but they aren't offering any solutions. Everyone agrees that change is needed desperately, but I haven't heard any suggestions for real change from religions, from "party" leaders or from the talking heads on TV. Maybe everybody should shut up and take a breath!
wholesale beads | 3.30.11 @ 4:46AM
good read