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

[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.