on being a man of "peace"

[acroyear]

Bad Idea, Jon Stewart : Dispatches from the Culture Wars:

I love Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and I liked the idea behind their rally in DC last weekend. Which leaves me all the more baffled as to why Yusuf Islam, aka Cat Stevens, was doing there. If you're trying to send a message to the world about the importance of moderation and tolerance, the guy who publicly declared that he wanted a writer dead for insulting Islam is hardly the guy you want on stage.

When Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses, the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran put a death sentence on his head for having defamed the prophet Muhammad. One week later, appearing before a group of students at a university in England, Stevens said, "He must be killed. The Qur'an makes it clear - if someone defames the prophet, then he must die."

I was thinking exactly the same thing, and have thought less of the ex-Stevens for years because of that attitude.  I usually change the station any time a classic song of his comes up.

Comments

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

True, but he was a relatively new Muslim at the time and has done much for peace efforts since and even spoke out against the 9/11 attacks. In Rolling Stone article from 2000:

"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 [appalled?], 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."

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

he could have done two things. he did one of them. he should have done the other.

what he did: attempted to laugh off his past saying he was just joking or just playing literalist - anybody looking at interview footage of that time would be hard-pressed to see those comments, particularly when REPEATED on other programs at the time, as being merely a joke or that he didn't take the literal words with all the seriousness they demanded.

what he could have done: actually say he was wrong, and actually stress that free speech is a higher value.

he has not done so. that quote waffles around it by saying "i was just repeating the literal words" without actually saying whether or not he believed the literal words. he dodged the question, leaving it to the reader to infer he would mean otherwise while still staying literally to views that won't offend more conservative muslims around him.

he remains a coward in my eyes.

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

It was over 20 years ago and people are still asking him about that. While yes, he probably should have come out and recanted 100%, he's gone on to do a lot of other work for peace, which seems to be largely ignored or at least always written about in light of his famous quotation. After 20 years, I'm good with letting it drop.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

Funny, no one made a big deal about when he appeared on the Colbert Report last year.

To be honest, I had long forgotten about that incident.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

well, the rally got a lot more viewers and people interested than their typical daily shows actually get in the "off-season". news pundits are always bigger around election time (or when something BIG happens in politics) than typical days.

plus there's just appearing on a show to talk and promote a new album vs. appearing as a representation of "man of peace" which is what Stewart presented him as (and not with sarcasm - they saved that for later) at the rally. the context was different, and in the rally's case the context invited the observation of possible hypocrisy.

[kmusser]

Stewart and Colbert obviously felt that the millions that he's raised for organizations advocating peace and tolerance count for more than the one mistake that he's refused to apologize for. I do think his continued refusal is cowardly, but at the same time that doesn't invalidate everything else that he's ever done.

[bkleber.livejournal.com]

I can understand being disgusted with him for that, but do you actually dislike his music now? Or is it just the association with what came later?

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

i disliked his music partly due to the relative (from the situation) insincerity of it. later i just disliked it 'cause it's fairly trite and my musical tastes are beyond that.