FMS-Blog : The Wildly Whimsical, Mostly Musical WebLog
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Yusuf Islam's Freedom of Expression
I'm not sure why but I seem to keep stumbling upon articles about a guy whose initial fame as a singer of the 'protest' movement during the 1960's was to some degree overshadowed by his infamy in the late 80's, mainly as a result of comments he made about Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa issued to an outspoken author who openly criticised Islam : I am speaking, of course, about the artist Cat Stevens or, as he is now known, Yusuf Islam.
Yusuf Islam
Yusuf more recently hit the headlines because he was refused entry into the United States of America due to being included on a list of suspected Islamic terrorists and because of his alleged connections with world terror organisations. But, back in 1989, when he had only recently converted to Islam, Yusuf was asked during a lecture what he thought about the death sentence that was imposed on Salman Rushdie following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses. At the time, the Today newspaper reported that Yusuf agreed with the fatwa and that he called upon all Muslims to carry out the execution of those who blaspheme against Islam. Of course, in the 17 years since this controversy came about Yusuf has had many opportunities to give a true account of his side of the story, one of which is published on his internet site, CatStevens.com :
The interesting thing about this article in defence of the way he "foolishly fell for the trap" set by a tabloid journalist is that Yusuf doesn't actual go as far as condemning the view that Salman Rushdie should have been murdered for writing and publishing blasphemous material - sure, he is very clear that he didn't once STATE support for the fatwa imposed on this author but then doesn't actually criticise the judgement by the late Ayatollah or those who supported that decision. For me this sets a very dangerous precedent : once again we have a figure who on the surface is a peace-loving individual, even devoting many of his songs over the years to this very subject, but who is also happy to go along with the belief that those who blaspheme - who speak or write ill of Islam - forgo their right to life.
The problem with extreme views like this, of course, is that any of us can decide what opinions we consider to be offensive and whether they are shared by a huge population of people across the world or whether just me and my cat are offended by a given opinion is neither here nor there. I could, for example, decide that the idea of evolution is so utterly against my viewpoint about the nature of the world around us that I have every right to carry out the execution of every scientist and writer on the subject from Carl Zimmer, to Richard Dawkins to Charles Darwin. This might sound far fetched but when theatre productions in 2006 must be abandoned for fear of the cast, writers and / or the audience being in danger from attacks by those who disagree with the show's content then clearly attitudes of the likes of Khomeini are running rife in modern day society.
This comes back down to the dichotomy faced by all liberals : that we believe in freedom of expression as well as the freedom of faith, belief and religious practise. The only trouble is that those our society grants these freedoms to too often do not share our conviction that ALL views are valid and should be allowed an airing, even if they are considered highly offensive to 1, 2 or 2,000,000 people.
As for Yusuf, well he not only fails to express any conviction that those who wanted to murder Salman Rushdie were fundamentally ill-advised but has also made many testing remarks about the world's Jewish population - remarks that are as offensive to someone with strong beliefs about prejudice as blasphemous remarks are to a religious individual. Infact, on his charity's website, called "Small Kindness", he doesn't even recognise the existence of the state of Israel, that part of the world being marked on his revised world map simply as "Holyland".
Yusuf IslamYusuf more recently hit the headlines because he was refused entry into the United States of America due to being included on a list of suspected Islamic terrorists and because of his alleged connections with world terror organisations. But, back in 1989, when he had only recently converted to Islam, Yusuf was asked during a lecture what he thought about the death sentence that was imposed on Salman Rushdie following the publication of his book The Satanic Verses. At the time, the Today newspaper reported that Yusuf agreed with the fatwa and that he called upon all Muslims to carry out the execution of those who blaspheme against Islam. Of course, in the 17 years since this controversy came about Yusuf has had many opportunities to give a true account of his side of the story, one of which is published on his internet site, CatStevens.com :
I was delivering a talk about my journey to Islam at Kingston University in London, when somebody (probably a disguised journalist) mischievously posed a question about Islam’s view on apostates and blasphemers... What I actually tried to do at the lecture in Kingston, and subsequently during other interviews, was to quote ‘from the book’ what Islam says about the legal consequences for someone who commits blasphemy within the context of Islamic law where it is adopted and applied, I never ever sanctioned people taking the law in their own hands or overstepping the laws of the Britain which is what the Fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini proposed. The truth is I never once stated support for the ‘Fatwa’.
The interesting thing about this article in defence of the way he "foolishly fell for the trap" set by a tabloid journalist is that Yusuf doesn't actual go as far as condemning the view that Salman Rushdie should have been murdered for writing and publishing blasphemous material - sure, he is very clear that he didn't once STATE support for the fatwa imposed on this author but then doesn't actually criticise the judgement by the late Ayatollah or those who supported that decision. For me this sets a very dangerous precedent : once again we have a figure who on the surface is a peace-loving individual, even devoting many of his songs over the years to this very subject, but who is also happy to go along with the belief that those who blaspheme - who speak or write ill of Islam - forgo their right to life.
The problem with extreme views like this, of course, is that any of us can decide what opinions we consider to be offensive and whether they are shared by a huge population of people across the world or whether just me and my cat are offended by a given opinion is neither here nor there. I could, for example, decide that the idea of evolution is so utterly against my viewpoint about the nature of the world around us that I have every right to carry out the execution of every scientist and writer on the subject from Carl Zimmer, to Richard Dawkins to Charles Darwin. This might sound far fetched but when theatre productions in 2006 must be abandoned for fear of the cast, writers and / or the audience being in danger from attacks by those who disagree with the show's content then clearly attitudes of the likes of Khomeini are running rife in modern day society.
This comes back down to the dichotomy faced by all liberals : that we believe in freedom of expression as well as the freedom of faith, belief and religious practise. The only trouble is that those our society grants these freedoms to too often do not share our conviction that ALL views are valid and should be allowed an airing, even if they are considered highly offensive to 1, 2 or 2,000,000 people.
As for Yusuf, well he not only fails to express any conviction that those who wanted to murder Salman Rushdie were fundamentally ill-advised but has also made many testing remarks about the world's Jewish population - remarks that are as offensive to someone with strong beliefs about prejudice as blasphemous remarks are to a religious individual. Infact, on his charity's website, called "Small Kindness", he doesn't even recognise the existence of the state of Israel, that part of the world being marked on his revised world map simply as "Holyland".
