CAT STEVENS AND THE FATWA



In 1989 the Iranian regime passed a death sentence, a 'fatwa,' on the novelist Salman Rushdie, it was, as Nick Cohen has observed 'the Dreyfus Affair" of our age, a central signifier of our preoccupations, one which was to divide friends and bring out the unbelievable and perverse where you least expected it.'
Amongst those involved in the 'affair' was Cat Stevens, Originally Steven Demetre Georgiou, alias Steve Adams, alias Cat Stevens, alias Yusef Islam, now just plain Yusef, (the man seems to have a positive mania for re-inventing himself).
Some might say that Mr Stevens contribution was, how can I put this, somewhat intemperate. You can judge for yourselves by watching the video below. However Mr Stevens seems to have a somewhat confused memory of these events, I quote in full:-

"I never called for the death of Salman Rushdie; nor backed the Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini - and still don't. ... When asked about my opinion regarding blasphemy, I could not tell a lie and confirmed that - like both the Torah and the Gospel - the Qur'an considers it, without repentance, as a capital offense. The Bible is full of similar harsh laws if you're looking for them. [Here he footnotes Exodus 20:7; 21:17; Leviticus 20:14-15; 24:16; Matthew, 12:31-32]. However, the application of such Biblical and Qur'anic injunctions is not to be outside of due process of law, in a place or land where such law is accepted and applied by the society as a whole. The accusation that I supported the Fatwa, therefore, is wholly false and misleading. It was due to my naivety in trying to answer a loaded question posed by a journalist ... in 1989 .... To indicate my actual stance about this matter before this front-page controversy erupted, it's useful to quote a letter of complaint I sent to Viking, a subsidiary of Penguin Books, the publishers, on 8th October, 1989. This was after I had been sent a preview of the text of Satanic Verses: "I wish to express my deepest outrage at the insensitivity of Penguin Books in Publishing Salman Rushdie's book, 'Satanic Verses', [sic] This book is clearly blasphemous in nature and so deeply offensive to the Muslim Community ... I urge you to give the contents of this letter your most urgent attention and take a responsible decision." As can be seen from the above, my personal response before the heat-seeking media got involved was significantly different from the fables and myths which have been circulated. Sad that no matter how many times I've repeatedly tried to explain my true position, journalists inevitably bring up this subject again and again; as if it was the only memorable thing I was reported to have done in my sixty-odd years living on this planet (yawn)."

Well (yawn), I'll let you judge the veracity of Mr Stevens account for yourself.



Now Mr Stevens has passed these remarks of with the extremely lame excuse that he was "just joking." So Oscar Wilde need fear no competition here.
Finally some will say that this was all some time ago, it is time to put these matters behind us and move on. For my self I would be more than happy to do so; only there is someone else who would like to put these matters behind them and move on, and that is Salman Rushdie. So as long as there are fanatics around eager to carry out this fatwa I for one feel inclined to draw attention to the role of Mr Stevens in this 'affair.'





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