Cat Stevens Appearance Rankles Right winger

[cal04]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/cat-stevens-appearance-at-sanity-rally-rankles-right-wingers.php?ref=fpblg
Cat Stevens Appearance At Sanity Rally Rankles Right Winger

Conservative bete noir Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens) made a guest appearance at the Comedy Central rally today, inspiring an instant backlash from at least one right winger, a group fond of accusing the musician of sympathizing with terrorists.

Islam was accused in 1989 of sympathizing with Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie. In 2004, he was booted from the U.S. after landing on the terrorist watch list, but was allowed reentry without incident two years later.

During Islam's appearance, Sarah Palin aide and Weekly Standard writer Michael Goldfarb tweeted "What the fuck. Sanity = supporting fatwa against Salman Rushdie?"


Video at link
"Peace Train" -- a song he seldom plays -- to tens of thousands of assembled fans.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

1. LOL. I thought you were referring to one of our resident douche-bags.

[chelsea0011]

2. Yusuf Islam, for the record, denies he supported a fatwa.

[LawnLover]

5. He talks about it here:

http://www.yusufislam.com/faq/3ed8ab9cb40dcd15dc38b7f0efc2f696

[chelsea0011]

16. Thanks for the link. This is a big myth about him that the right loves

to bring up. I have seen him many times since then constantly say he never would support killing anyone for any reason. The early myths started way back when Yusuf Islam was seldom heard from and got quoted out of the blue. It was the first time I heard anythin about him in years and wasn't available for comments becuase he wasn't speaking to the media at all back then.

[malaise]

3. Good

That makes me happy.

[alphafemale]

4. Isn't Salman Rushdie still alive? So much for fatwas...ehh? nt

[iris27]

23. Rushdie is alive - the gentleman who translated the book into Japanese (who was, by

the way, a Muslim himself) is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitoshi_Igarashi">not.

The Italian translator was also seriously injured in a stabbing attack, but lived. The publisher of the Norwegian edition was shot three times and left for dead. The Turkish translator was the target of a mob riot that set on fire the hotel where he was staying. He escaped, but 37 other people died.

I have no issue with Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, but please don't make light of the fatwa that incited the injuries and deaths of so many.

[sally cat]

24. All those people dead and wounded and some joke about this fatwa? That's sick.

[Turborama]

6. One of Sarah Palin's aides tweeted "What the fuck"?

It must have really got under his skin! :rofl:

[Kurovski]

7. He must be somewhat fearful.

[RagAss]

8. Good Fuck'em !

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

9. Meanwhile, Ted Nugent made death threats against two politicans

But that's okay.

[jillan]

10. But they also had Kid Rock who sings at Repug rallies.

[Barack_America]

11. Glad to hear Sarah's peeps are watching!

:hi:

[BumRushDaShow]

18. +1000!!

They couldn't resist, could they????? :rofl:

[siligut]

12. Maybe, this will help clear up all of the rumors about what he said.

Apparently, he never supported the fatwa, but that never made the news. Now that the discussion has been re-opened, maybe that will be cleared up for more people.

[Myrina]

13. Yusuf is still a graceful, beautiful, talented man

... so fuck what the right wing thinks.

[BuelahWitch]

17. And his voice is still beautiful too!

[glinda]

14. Yusuf doesn't play his old songs. He broke totally with tradition. Wonderful.

It is one of the only songs that makes me teary eyed every single time that I hear it.

[Bitwit1234]

15. Sarah Palin and Glen Beck and Rush and Rove rankle me

but they are still around. I do not know why but I typed Sasquatch instead of Sarah and had to change it, I was not thinking about that at all.

[BuelahWitch]

19. I'm sure that Sarah Palin's aide's give two flying fucks about Salman Rushdie

:eyes:

[spanone]

20. it's racism pure & simple....

[AnnieBW]

21. Obviously, these people are humor-challenged.

I'm surprised that nobody tweeted "Devil Worshiper" about Ozzy.

[deacon]

22. The ONLY thing that doesn't rankle a right winger is when a fellow rw'er does something wrong. n/t

[Call Me Wesley]

25. Oh my, and Germany lets terrorists sing the same song in 2009?

Along with Ukuleles, which, as we all know, can hold up to five pounds of antimatter bombs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGEhAVdmMr8

Sing along!