Well, what do you expect? The singer, who rose to fame as Cat Stevens, changed his name to Yusuf Islam when he converted to Islam in 1977 but now wants to be known as Yusuf Cat Stevens, is candid about his conversion and the fallout that ensued. Stevens shared, “That was very difficult because at one point I was an icon of the majority and now I am part of the minority who are looked down upon and certainly, to a large extent, misunderstood.”
The Guardian (h/t Mary C) The singer-songwriter now known as Yusuf Cat Stevens has spoken of the pain of his decision to leave music behind in 1977, when he first converted to Islam, and of the difficulty of being used as a representative of an entire faith.
“It was a hard tug. I felt a responsibility to my fans, but I would have been a hypocrite. I needed to get real. So I stopped singing and started taking action with what I now believed,” he said. The singer, who first performed as Cat Stevens, adopted the name Yusuf Islam when he changed faith. He now uses both first names.
Stevens said he had originally wanted to serve as a bridge between two great cultures, yet, while Islam welcomed its famous convert, western audiences were hostile. “On the other side, people said, ‘He is a bit of a traitor’. He has ‘turned Turk’, if you like. So I was often used as a bit of a spokesman, and I was useful for certain occasions.”
The 72-year-old British musician, still internationally famous for songs such as Father and Son, The First Cut is the Deepest, Moonshadow and Wild World, said he had hoped fans would understand that he felt he had found something more important than music, but he was wrong.
“I thought, ‘Everybody should get this’, but it didn’t work out quite like that. Everyone wanted me to keep on making music.” Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Sunday, the singer, who was born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London’s Soho to a Greek Cypriot father and a Swedish mother, also talked about the joy he felt when he decided to pick up his guitar again after 20 years.
One of the most upsetting times for Stevens, he reveals, was his portrayal as a supporter of the Iranian fatwa that forced the novelist Salman Rushdie into hiding in 1989. “I was certainly not prepared or equipped to deal with sharp-toothed journalists,” he said. “I was cleverly framed by certain questions. I never supported the fatwa. I had to live through that.”
The spiritual journey that led to Islam began with a serious bout of tuberculosis in his teens. In hospital in Midhurst in Sussex for three months, he started to read Buddhist literature. A few years later, his brother gave him a Qur’an and the Muslim teachings, alongside an episode in which he nearly drowned while swimming in the sea off Malibu, this took him to the point of conversion to Islam. “I would never have picked up a Qur’an. But it became the gateway. After a year I could not hold myself back. I had to bow down.”
Yusuf Islam (formerly known as pop star Cat Stevens) talks about the media censorship he experienced in spreading the message of Islam:
“… and now I am part of the minority who are looked down upon and certainly, to a large extent, misunderstood.” [sic]
(apparently … something this unwell (not a man a) male Yusuf islam spoke).
to shiite head … (aka … Yusuf islam) – multiple insults ARE intended here !
more people are now islam AWARE …
it’s called being islamonaused (ie being sick of islam and its islams) !
Go and blow yourself and yours up
amongst yourselves AND
amongst your Marxist Socialist Communist aiders and abetters of islam’s (illegal) immigration and residency !!!
Or …
No or …
carriers of islam’s sick mind virus – (voluntarily) just be gone !!!
Think about it …
have YOU today aided and abetted slam’s (illegal) immigration and residency in YOUR neighbourhood !!!
Daily …
it is a duty to insult and demean islam and its islams !!!
Wherever they be !!!
Brainwashed thing. Not a thought of your own.
He should throw the quran in the trash and then turn his back on islam.
If not, he is still a traitor to the people that made him what he was.
Quran (3:56) – “As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help.”
Born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London’s Soho to a Greek Cypriot father and a Swedish mother.
Eternal shame on this horrible man. Christianity teaches goodness, kindness and mercy. Islam teaches the complete opposite.
The fiend doesn’t care about the EXTREME Suffering Muslims perpetrated on the world for 1,400 years and continue to do so every day. Apparently he thinks inflicting great horror and terror on non Muslim innocents is a good thing.
+1
he is mentally defective , a defective typewriter with a few keys missing
What did the lying islamic pig say about Salman Rushdie to the question should Salman Rushdie die? “Yes, yes.”
Stevens is just another Muslum liar. Not worth a second thought
Ian Hislop explained, “Cat Stevens has changed his name to Dog Stevens”.
Here is a little rhyme for him:
YUSUF
When I convert, I’ll choose the name Yusuf,
The one I’ve always liked so well.
I’d also really like to have it linked with Idi,
An admirable leader, true to tell.
Then remember Otman, such a wise old scholar.
Famous name! I’ll add it if I can.
So put them all together,
Say it loud in every weather,
I’m your Yusuf ul-Idi Otman,
Yes, your Yusuf ul-Idi Otman.
Didn’t like him as ” cat” now go finish drowning in Muslim filth ” yusef!”
Pissbeuponyou
I just watched the video. It looks like past drug use has addled his brain.
I remember when an old friend told me that Cat Stevens had became a muslim and I laughed at the joke, then I realized he was serious, and I was shocked as even in 1977,when I was 29, I knew what islam taught and I knew it was not what I believed, so how could he join such an evil religion when there are so many others, he had read some Buddhist Literature but must have decided that just wasnt peaceful enough for him so he went to a death cult that slaughtered people who wish to leave it, or whom calls it a Fascist Religious Cult, as I do.
I still listen to his first two wonderful Albums and do not connect that time with what he became as his putting down his Guitar was a sad day for the music World and what he sings today does not sound the same as back in the days before his conversion.
I always thought his Father was Egyptian and moved to Cyprus and he was muslim.
He often visits a part of Malaysia I used to live in but I never had the chance to see him,let alone meet him, but I would have loved to as his music meant a LOT to me back in the days when we thought the World was a mess, however we didnt think it could any get worse…. but it certainly did…
Cat Stevens sabotaged himself and he is living with the consequences. Maybe someday he will find himself again.
When you follow a fat white dwarf that acted like a clairvoyant telling people crap because the savages crap because they knew no better.
Sun setting in a pool of muddy water!
Sperm coming from between your ribs and backbone!
What should you expect?
An Oscar nomination.
The perfect man, NOT, defective DNA.
Muhammad was WHITE!
http://quranx.com/Hadith/Muslim/Reference/Hadith-2340/
Dont forget the amazing orbit capable donkey that can achieve escape velocity and live in space without life support or means of propulsion.
Must have missed the song Yusef penned about that one.
He is a disgrace to Greek Cypriots. He should go to Cyprus and look at the atrocities the Turks committed and the occupation of Cyprus. He talks about the 1979 Iran revolution, what about 1974 Invasion of Cyprus by Turkish fascists muslims. He is a traitor. Hope he rots in hell.
Amen!
I was 12 in 1977 but I still recall my older sister being disgusted at his conversion & stopped listening to or buying his music from that point on.
Hes had 43 years to ruminate on his decision but seems none the wiser.
In all these decades has he not discovered the hatred that islam has for mankind?
Even other muslims are hated and persecuted for not being the right type of muslim.
His excuse for conversion was a near death experience but he chooses the very worst ideology known to man.
A cult that inflicts death on millions of people & animals worldwide.
Hes a jerk.
He can get lost.
Ziggysue, I was 29 at that time, and I felt immediate disgust with him converting to Islam as I did for the so-called ‘Black’ Superman in Boxing.
Absolutely disgusting. All these years as a Muslim, & the best he can do is spew taqiyya that “the G d of Abraham is one” (yes, but Allah is His antithesis) & “the G d of Jesus is one” (the quran says He didn’t die on the cross & resurrect: Instead, it says He was pulled from the cross to sit at the right hand of G d until the time comes for Him to return & slaughter all the Christians who won’t convert to Islam. This means he worships Satan & blasphemes Jesus. What arrogance to think that if the media let him spew his filth years ago the world would have converted to Islam. I will say it again: Absolutely disgusting.
Egotistical & delusional.
So much for the man who sang THE PEACE TRAIN and other great songs…what a fool.I remember he explained his conversion happened when he had a near death experience by nearly drowning…somehow he thought that Allah the Moon God pushed him to shore!
He went to the most hateful and perverted death cult (Islam) as an act of Salvation,he should have sought mental care I think.
How does he explain the horrors of ISLAM past and present and of course how is fellow Greeks suffered under the Turks.
No doubt to me the Cat was swimming that night and tried to commit suicide by drowning but the tide turned and washed him back to shore…..for mine better he drowned that waste his life to the Hateful Death Cult.
“Yousuf Cat Stevens”? Lol. Islams claim to fame. Can’t they nab anyone better than that?
I never understood why the dickhead did that . i.e. submit. But for me it worked. I’ll never listen to him again. Lie down with dogs, you get fleas buddy. Why not try apostasy for your next thrill ? Then you’ll really find out about Islam.
dude, are you stupid? islam opened their arms and the west was hostile. and what do you think islam would do had you not been a convert over there?
This follower of the satanic ideology known as Islam does not mention reading a Bible. Raised and blessed in a then Christian UK, he turns his back on God and follows a satanic ritual and then has questions. Find the Lord before it is too late Mr. Cat Stevens and not the nonsensical Arabic name you chose.
Never liked Twat Stevens, crap songs, obviously an idiot like casius clay converting to even crappier lines.