Changes

        Cat Stevens was born Stephen Demetre Georgiou on July 21^st 1948 in London. In the 1960s he sold over 60 million albums. In 1977 he converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam, and left music behind for 28 years. He has come back to sing for a peaceful world.

        There is a lot of information on his website http://www.catstevens.com/, I decided to focus on his FAQ called Mr. Ho-Ho’s FAQ. Before I talk about that his website also has an audio player where you can listen to clips of his music, a gallery, a discography, any news about Yusuf Islam, videos about him, his biography, shop, and links to his other websites and charity.

        There are many rumors and misconceptions about Yusuf Islam. Some of them are just mistakes and others wild speculations. He has never been a monk nor has he ever taught in a religious school. He doesn’t oppose Freedom of Speech, he believes that it shouldn’t be abused though.

        People believe that he left music because he said music was objected to by God, which he has never said. He said that the reason he left was because of the spiritual connection he found with Islam. But at one point he did write to his record companies to get them to stop selling his albums, he has since changed his mind.

        He doesn’t support Hamas and condemns all acts of terrorism, he says terrorists are un-Islamic. A connection the novel we are reading now is that people believe he has called for the death of Salman Rushdie.

        This is not true and he never backed the Fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, Iran’s spiritual leader at the time.

        He does have something to say about Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, “The book itself destroyed the harmony between peoples and created an unnecessary crisis.” I don’t know much about this, but I still don’t agree with his statement. Rushdie should be able to write about his personal opinions on religion.

        Yusuf Islam started a charity with his wife in 1999 to help with the Kosovo crisis. The charity Small Kindness http://www.smallkindness.org/ now looks over a thousand orphans in Indonesia, Iraq, and Balkan countries.

        Yusuf Islam is a very interesting person who has changed many times throughout the years. With his music he has touched many people, and now through his schools he helps run and his charity he is helping out many children. A final note, his website is changing hosts and will be getting a new look soon.