If you actually read what you post, you might not need me to explain it for you.Seraph wrote:You must be kidding. From the Wikipedia:mistermack wrote:Cat Stevens just endorsed the Koran, which is what most muslims do. He's consistently denied calling for Rushdie's death. He simply confirmed that he supports the Koran, when some reporter pointed out that the Koran says that death is the punishment for Blasphemy.Later he claimed that he didn't really mean any of that. It was just a joke. Yeah. Right.Kingston University
On February 21, 1989, Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston University in London about his conversion to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie's execution. He replied, "He must be killed. The Qur'an makes it clear - if someone defames the prophet, then he must die."[4]
Newspapers quickly denounced what was seen as Yusuf Islam's support for the killing of Rushdie and the next day Yusuf released a statement saying that he was not personally encouraging anybody to be a vigilante,[2] and that he was only stating that blasphemy is a capital offense according to the Qur'an.
Hypotheticals
Two months later Yusuf Islam appeared on a British television program, BBC's Hypotheticals, an occasional broadcast featuring a panel of notable guests to explore a hypothetical situation with moral, ethical and/or political dilemmas. In the episode ("A Satanic Scenario"), Islam had an exchange about the issue with the moderator and Queens Counsel Geoffrey Robertson.[5][6] Islam would later clarify the exchanges as "stupid and offensive jokes" made "in bad taste", but "part of a well-known British national trait ... dry humour on my part."[1]
Robertson: You don't think that this man deserves to die?
Y. Islam: Who, Salman Rushdie?
Robertson: Yes.
Y. Islam: Yes, yes.
Robertson: And do you have a duty to be his executioner?
Y. Islam: Uh, no, not necessarily, unless we were in an Islamic state and I was ordered by a judge or by the authority to carry out such an act - perhaps, yes.
[Some minutes later, Robertson on the subject of a protest where an effigy of the author is to be burned]
Robertson: Would you be part of that protest, Yusuf Islam, would you go to a demonstration where you knew that an effigy was going to be burned?
Y. Islam: I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing
The New York Times also reports this statement from the program: [If Rushdie turned up at my doorstep looking for help] I might ring somebody who might do more damage to him than he would like. I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him exactly where this man is.[7]
Anyway, the prohibition was cancelled after two years.
Edit: It should never have happened in the first place. Having nutty ideas is not sufficient reason for it. Acting on them is. Same goes for that martial arts expert. It is one thing to say physical pain and damage on attackers ought to be maximised when one defends oneself, but quite another to actually do that.
It's a flippant comment in a flippant program, put on for entertainment.
He made his REAL opinions perfectly clear in his statement.
Like I said, you people are just suckers for the old journalist headline trick. Take a quote out of context, and the dummies will be suitably outraged. The dummies read the headline, and the dummies buy the paper.
Then they read what REALLY happened inside, which is usually much more boring, when they have already parted with their money.
And take note of the word "later" in the Wikipedia extract, as well as my comment. The screeching sound you hear is caused by the belated and unconvincing backpedalling Yusuf Islam engaged in. Going by the demeanour he expressed his opinions about his religion and Rushdie, it seems to me he meant every word of them at the time.