Wonder if she was listening to Mr. Peace Train Cat Stevens on her new IPhone?
Is there a problem with Cat, since he changed his name to Yusuf Islam? Is he not sincere when he asks you to get on board the Peace Train? Is that an unacceptable alternative to the War Train we've been riding for the past 4+ years?
A little history on Cat Stevens, an artist I enjoyed greatly in college, courtesy of Wikipedia. I was unaware of what he had been doing until he came back into the news after 9-11.
Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 in London), who was known as Cat Stevens from 1966 to 1978, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, educator, philanthropist and prominent convert to Islam.
Under the name Cat Stevens he has sold over 60 million albums around the world since the late 1960s. His albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat were both certified by the RIAA as having achieved Triple Platinum status in the United States (three million sales each); his album Catch Bull at Four sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. His songwriting has also earned him two ASCAP songwriting awards (for "The First Cut Is the Deepest," which has been a hit single for four different artists.)
When Stevens nearly drowned in an accident in Malibu in 1975, he reports having pleaded with God to save him. Stevens described the event in a VH1 interview some years later: "I suddenly held myself and I said, 'Oh God! If you save me, I'll work for you.'" The near-death experience intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into Buddhism "Zen and I Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology", but when his brother David gave him a copy of the Qur'an, Stevens began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam.
He formally converted to the Islamic faith in 1977 and took the name Yusuf Islam in 1978, saying that he "always loved the name Joseph" and was particularly drawn to the story of Joseph in the Qur'an. (Yusuf is the Arabic version of the name Joseph.)
Following his conversion, Yusuf Islam abandoned his career as a pop star. Song and the use of musical instruments is an area of debate in Muslim jurisprudence, considered Harām by some, and is the primary reason he gave for retreating from the pop spotlight. At one point he wrote to the record companies asking that his music no longer be distributed, but his request was denied.
He decided to use the continuing wealth he earns from his music career on philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and elsewhere. In 1981 he founded the Islamia Primary School in Salisbury Road in the north London area of Kilburn; after that he founded several Islamic secondary schools, and devoted his energy to providing an Islamic education to children and to charitable causes. He founded, and is chairman of, the Small Kindness charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans, Indonesia, and Iraq. He also was chairman of the charity Muslim Aid from 1985 to 1993.
Yusuf Islam immediately and vehemently spoke out against the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, saying:
"I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attack, it must be stated that no right thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action: The Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment."
He appeared on videotape on a VH-1 pre-show for the October 2001 Concert for New York City, condemning the attacks and singing his song Peace Train for the first time in public in more than twenty years--an a cappella version. He also donated half of his box-set royalties to the September 11 Fund for victims' families, and the other half to orphans in underdeveloped countries.
On 21 September 2004 Yusuf Islam was traveling on a United Airlines flight from London to Washington, en route to a meeting with singer Dolly Parton who had recorded his "Peace Train" several years earlier and was planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album. While the plane was in flight, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System flagged his name as being on a no-fly list. Customs agents alerted the Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained by the FBI.
The following day, Yusuf Islam was deported back to the United Kingdom. The United States Transportation Security Administration claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities." The United States Department of Homeland Security specifically alleged that Yusuf Islam had provided funding to the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas. However, Islam was admitted without incident into the United States in December 2006 for several radio concert performances and interviews to promote his new record.
Yusuf Islam's 2004 deportation provoked a small international controversy and led the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Jack Straw to complain personally to US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations. Powell responded by stating that the watch list was under review, and added, "I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we are right."
After the U.S. government deported Yusuf Islam, The Sun and The Sunday Times British newspapers in October 2004 stated that the U.S. was correct in its action. Yusuf Islam sued for libel and received a substantial out-of-court "agreed settlement" and apologies from the newspapers. Both newspapers acknowledged that Yusuf Islam has never supported terrorism and that, to the contrary, he had recently been given a Man for Peace award from the private Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Committee.
Yusuf Islam responded that he was " ...delighted by the settlement [which] helps vindicate my character and good name.... It seems to be the easiest thing in the world these days to make scurrilous accusations against Muslims, and in my case it directly impacts on my relief work and damages my reputation as an artist. The harm done is often difficult to repair," and added that he intended to donate the financial award given to him by the court to help orphans of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
I can't help but appreciate the irony between the outrage expressed over the false accusations made against a group of lacrosse players (who will be justly compensated) and the perpetuation of an image built on false accusations against a man who has devoted himself to helping others, as evidenced by his record over the past few decades.
It is also reflective of a growing attitude of intolerance towards the religion of Islam and its adherents. A few years back I went to see Dick Gregory speak on campus. One thing that stood out after over 30 years was when he talked about students being the "new niggers" (A phrase that the NAACP is now trying to bury). This was in the days of anti-war (Vietnam era) protests, and long-haired college students were not too popular with Nixon's Silent Majority. Mr. Gregory spoke about the waves of immigrants (Irish, German, Polish, etc) that occupied the bottom rung of society - and that we were now the bottom of the rung. It appears that Muslims have taken over the position of the despised - they are the "new niggers". Outrage over students on a campus in a heavily-Arab community in Detroit being provided with foot baths, possibly at school expense - the horror!
With this general suspicion of anyone wearing a head scarf and a visceral dislike for anyone with an Arabic-sounding name, what hope do we have to show the Muslim community that we recognize that Islam is not the problem - that it is a group of fanatics that have twisted its holy teachings to justify their barbaric actions and petty objections to things like holding hands? Where is that outreach to show the vast, vast majority of the Muslim world that we respect their religion, their identity and their ideals? Instead we disparage them and make them feel separate from the rest of us.
Until we make that effort to reach out to the Muslim community and try to better understand their culture, religion and values, we have little hope of persuading its members that they are welcome in our society. To do otherwise feeds the festering resentment felt by many Muslims around the globe, which leads to tacit approval of action taken against those that wish harm on adherents to Islam. Check your attitude.
