Cat Stevens Gets Peace Award in Rome

[Tab]

(AFP) - Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev presented singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, with a peace prize, two months after he was refused entry to the United States on "national security grounds". The "Man for Peace 2004" prize was presented at a ceremony in Rome city hall marking the opening of the Fifth World Nobel Summit, an annual gathering here of Nobel peace laureates led by Gorbachev, who won the prize in 1990
http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=Entertainment&cat=Cat_Stevens

[BlueEyedSon]

1. LMFAO!

[revree]

2. He does more to help children than any Christian I know

right on, Cat-Yusuf!!!

[mr_hat]

3. Islam accepted the award, in the shape of a train, saying "Ride on."

[Gato Moteado]

4. i know i feel much safer now that the bush administration.....

...was able to keep out the guy who wrote "peace train" and received the "man for peace award 2004".

we don't want dangerous people like that in our country.

[Karenca]

5. The US GOVT should apologize

to him.

He said he received many apologies from US citizens, more than he can count..

All Dems and Independents, I'm sure.:hug:

[newyawker99]

12. Hi Karenca!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[auburngrad82]

6. What??? You mean he's NOT an Ay-rab terrah-ist?

On second thought, he did sing "Peace Train" when Shrub was still doing coke and whoring around. I guess he does probably deserve it.

[chelaque liberal]

7. Are we sure Orwell is dead?

Congratulations to Yusuf Islam. He'll aways be Cat Stevens to me, though.

[Az_lefty]

8. Yep, we don't need no peace makers here in M'arica....

we got "Da Chimp"

[TO Kid]

9. Was Salman Rushdie on the guest list?

I'm sure he's thrilled that the celebrity who endorsed his death sentence got a peace prize.

[lumpy]

15. Bush gets his award for

endorsing Islamic deaths. His award is called The Jesus Christ peace award.

[skypilot]

10. Cat Stevens?!?!

Isn't he that "terrorist" what wrote all them pretty songs?

[gottaB]

11. It's easy to get confused

Cat Stevens made pretty songs that celebrated peace.

Yusuf Islam makes songs that celebrate war.


http://www.islaam.net/main/display.php?id=462&category=40

NB: Don't be misled. The gunfire is not instrumental accompaniment!

[lumpy]

14. When does Dubya

get his award for celebrating war? He makes songs with real bullets and bombs.

[gottaB]

16. Did you listen to that recording?

Before you missed the point?

Here it is again, in detail. At the time that recording was made, Yusuf Islam had renounced Cat Stevens and his music. In fact he was of the opinion that instrumental music was an evil, although he had no problem with singing behind celebratory gunfire. (Funny, considering the recording of "I have no Cannons that Roar.") In his Islamia schools instrumental music was prohibited. I don't know whether that's still the case. It appears as if Yusuf Islam himself has evolved to accept some forms of instrumental music, although to be honest I haven't seen him offer a clear explanation of his views.

Why raise this issue? Well, there's my gut feeling that many people have suffered needlessly at the hands of the Taliban and other anti-music fundamentalists. But primarily I believe it's worth noting that despite the fact that Cat Stevens wrote "Peace Train," it is a mistake to attribute that music and those sentiments to Yusuf Islam, even though he has revived the song as fundraising tool. Yusuf Islam is not a pacifist. Neither is he liberal. His politics are squarely to the right of most posters on this board, and most of the people in the leftwing media who celebrate him. Militantly to the right, in some cases.

Whether or not Small Kindness is worthy of praise is another matter. I happen to believe, by way of analogy, that Pat Robertson does a lot of charitable work, but I won't go out of my to praise him because I disagree with his views, and because I recognize that his brand of fundamentalism has many deleterious consequences. Surely my assessment of Robertson is not completely foreign to you. (A similar argument could be made about the Bush administration, if you'd rather.) The differences between Yusuf Islam and Pat Roberston don't impress me half as much as their similarities. One is on the Christmas list of the Bush administration, the other is on its nofly list, and both are on my shit list. As Juan Cole observed, "If you advocate the execution of novelists for writing novels, you and John Ashcroft deserve one another."

[regnaD kciN]

19. Check a few of your assumptions about that song...

Although Yusuf wrote "Afghanistan" back in the late 70s, that version of the song (with machine-gun backing track) is not his. The voice sounds nothing like him, and his own website confirmed that fact. It appears to have been something cobbled together by the Taliban as a P.R. move in the late '90s. (FWIW, Stevens/Islam was not crazy about having the Taliban take over his song.)

Even so, rather than "celebrating war," it is a song of solidarity with the Afghan people struggling against a Soviet invasion -- a struggle in which, if you recall, the U.S. was on the same side.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

13. Hah

Wait, I thought only Cat Stevens got peace awards. Yusuf Islam is the terrorist, remember?

:D

[HeeBGBz]

17. I'm being followed by a goon shadow...n/t

[Maven]

18. Who cares...Stevens is an outspoken homophobe and misogynist.

The enemy of your enemy isn't always your friend.