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Yusuf Islam (Biography)

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Popularity: -3 Vote:	A person who steals bread during a famine is not treated as a thief.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	After a year of financial success and high living, I became very ill, contracted TB and had to be hospitalized. It was then that I started to think: what was to happen to me? Was I just a body and my goal in life was merely to satisfy this body? I realized now that this calamity was a blessing given to me by Allah, a chance to open my eyes.
Popularity: -4 Vote:	After embracing Islam in 1977, I considered the majority of underprivileged dark-skinned people of the so-called Third World brothers and sisters in humanity.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	All I have to say is what you know already, to confirm what you already know of the message of the Prophet... as given by God - the Religion of Truth. As human beings we are given a consciousness and a duty that has placed us at the top of creation.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	All things can be forgiven if we can progress.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	As a member of humanity and as a Muslim, this is my contribution to the call for a peaceful solution to the dangerous path some world leaders today seem to be taking.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	At Jerusalem, I went to the mosque and sat down. A man asked me what I wanted. I told him I was a Muslim. Now I realize I can get direct contact with God, unlike Christianity or any other religion.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	Because I don't play guitar any more, African harmonies and rhythms have been an inspiration to me. I love the raw origin of the sound. It complements my voice and words naturally.
Popularity: -4 Vote:	Because there was no sign of racialism or separation between the Prophets, I knew that this book was truly a Revelation from the One God. From that moment I realised that there was nothing left for me to do but to be a Muslim-and that was what I did 28 years ago.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	Being more mature now, I've managed to make peace with my past, as it's making peace with me. Certainly there's a mutual gain for reflecting on both phases of my life, and although I consider the here and now perhaps to be more important, there are still many people who appreciate my past ephemeral stages and the lessons they represent.
Popularity: 3 Vote:	Communal well-being is central to human life.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	Ever since I became a Muslim, I've had to deal with attempts to damage my reputation and countless insinuations seeking to cast doubt on my character and trying to connect me to causes which I do not subscribe to.
Popularity: 3 Vote:	Everything I do is for the pleasure of Allah.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	Generally, Christians have lost the people. So, Muslim schools are lost to the old days when religion played an important part in the lives of the people. They have a lot of darkened energies of what that means and of course, Islam brings light. It doesn't bring dark. That is really why our school is important.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	I always stood for the elimination of conflict and wars, and any of those causes that ignite them.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	I am confident that, in the end, common sense and justice will prevail. I'm an optimist, brought up on the belief that if you wait to the end of the story, you get to see the good people live happily ever after.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	I became alienated from this religious upbringing, and started making music. I wanted to be a big star. All those things I saw in the films and on the media took hold of me, and perhaps I thought this was my god: the goal of making money.
Popularity: 3 Vote:	I became very famous, as a teenager, and my name and photo were splashed in all the media. They made me larger than life, so I wanted to live larger than life, and the only way to do that was to be intoxicated.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	I did not come into contact with any Muslim before I embraced Islam. I read the Qur'an first and realized no person is perfect, Islam is perfect, and if we imitate the conduct of the Holy Prophet... we will be successful.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	I found a religion that blended scientific reason with spiritual reality in a unifying faith far removed from the headlines of violence, destruction and terrorism.
Popularity: -3 Vote:	I looked at some of the statues of Jesus; they were just stones with no life. When they said that God is three, I was puzzled even more but could not argue. I believed it, simply because I had to have respect for the faith of my parents.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	I realized... I still had some kind of skill in being able to produce audio material which might be interesting as an educational tool for those people who know very little about Islam.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	I started making songs. But deep down, I had a feeling for humanity, a feeling that if I became rich, I would help the needy.
Popularity: 4 Vote:	I suppose that the media and their portrayal of Islam and the almost tribal separations and divisions of the Muslims are the greatest issues confronting Muslims in the United Kingdom.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	I think I will just use guitar as backing. I'm not doing a traditional folk thing, but a contemporary thing-my own version of folk, if you like.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	I think it's great to have something of that era, of my history as a performer, out there on record because maybe a lot of people would never have experienced it. I think the show was very, very powerful.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	I tried Zen and Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology. I tried to look back into the Bible, and could not find anything. At this time I did not know anything about Islam, and then, what I regarded as a miracle occurred. My brother had visited the mosque in Jerusalem, and was greatly impressed that while on the one hand it throbbed with life.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	I was brought up in the modern world of all the luxury and the highlight of show business. I was born into a Christian home.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	I was quite domineering... There was a moment where the cameraman almost stuck the camera up my nose, and I got very upset and uptight.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	I've re-examined my past body of work, and you can call it a rejuvenation. It's a natural expression of my concern as a Muslim and as an artist. I believe both can exist side by side, particularly when the cause is right.
Popularity: 3 Vote:	I've returned to being an amateur without any ties or strings attached, which gives me a freedom I never had before.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	I've studied various schools of thought... I acknowledge that some Muslims consider music prohibited, but I've found a lot of evidence from the life of the Prophet to show that he allowed certainly, but even encouraged, music at certain times.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	I've... used a very conservative approach. You only hear my own voice, a slight choral accompaniment and drums. Let's say that's the safest option according to certain Islamic schools of thought. I've made minimal use of musical instruments, and in some schools of thought in Islam musical instruments are disapproved of.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	In a World where people are surrounded by darkness, ignorance and fear, it is a sign of hope to be celebrating Islam's message of peace and light, and the last great Messenger, born and chosen to deliver them to all mankind.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	In the early days I had a very black-and-white view of everything.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	In those days a concert was a personal experience. I wanted to be as close as possible to the audience, and of course big stadiums didn't enable you to do that. It wasn't my style.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	It is part of my faith as a Muslim to try to help those who are suffering from poverty or economic or political injustice.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	It was important for me to duck out of the fast and furious life I'd been living as a pop star. I was in a different mood.
Popularity: -3 Vote:	It's very difficult to ignore humanitarian disasters. The royalties from my albums continue to support my charity work.
Popularity: 5 Vote:	Man is created to be God's deputy on earth and it is important to realize the obligation to rid ourselves of all illusions and to make our lives a preparation for the next life.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	Moderation is part of faith, so those who accuse Muslim schools of fostering fanaticism should learn a bit more about Islam.
Popularity: -3 Vote:	Music is a lady that I still love because she gives me the air that I breathe. We need all sorts of nourishment. And music satisfies and nourishes the hunger within ourselves for connection and harmony.
Popularity: 3 Vote:	Music is part of God's universe.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	Peace Train is a song I wrote, the message of which continues to breeze thunderously through the hearts of millions of human beings.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	People have times in their lives when they are forced to examine themselves.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	Perhaps people will remember my voice and what I was able to do with it.
Popularity: -5 Vote:	Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	Some extremists take elements of the sacred scriptures out of context.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	The consternation of Muslims living in the west is clearly justified: Islamophobia is not a theory, it's a fact, and many ordinary Muslims in the U.K. and elsewhere are suffering, unseen and unheard.
Popularity: -3 Vote:	The fact that the Prophet cared for every human being and tried his best to ensure their security in the hereafter must be the most telling of his compassionate and merciful characteristics.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	The greatest legacy is that which benefits the widest number of people for the longest period without limit to value. No one but the Prophet Muhammad was given that role as the seal of God's message.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	The Koran that our young pupils learn at Islamia is full of stories and lessons from the history of humanity as a whole. The Gospels and the Torah are referred to; Jesus and Abraham are mentioned.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	The latest horror to hit the U.S. looks to have been caused by people of Middle Eastern origin, bearing Muslim names. Again, shame. This fuels more hatred for a religion and a people who have nothing to do with these events.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	The Prince's visit was important because it shows that Muslims are accepted in this country. He told me he was a Cat Stevens fan. I think he has some of my albums.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	The Qur'an speaks on different levels.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	The spiritual quest was always the predominant aspect of my life. It's always been there. But there's also an incredible passion connected to it; it's not just a dry investigative process. I have been extremely emotional about it, and that comes out in the songs.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	The verses talked about other Prophets as brothers preaching the same unifying script of mankind, showing every man and woman the way to Paradise. I saw the names of Jesus, of Moses, of Abraham, of Jacob, of Noah and of course, crucially, the name of this last messenger, the last Messenger of God, Muhammad.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	The very first lesson that I learnt from the Qur'an was the message of unity and peace.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	The words of the songs speak for themselves.
Popularity: 2 Vote:	There is a powerful need for people to feel that gust of hope rise up again.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	There was great interest in the Eastern mysticism. I began reading and the first thing I began to become aware of was of death, and that the soul moves on, it does not stop. I felt I was taking the road to bliss and high accomplishment. I started meditating and even became a vegetarian.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	There was no division I could see between the essential teaching of all Prophets and wise men of religion.
Popularity: 1 Vote:	They have hijacked my religion.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	This is the beauty of the Qur'an: it asks you to reflect and reason, and not to worship the sun or moon but the One who has created everything. The Qur'an asks man to reflect upon the sun and moon and God's creation in general.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	Though times have changed, it's a nice surprise to see that youthful feeling of anti-war sentiment returning once more to the cobbled main streets of Europe.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	To be what you want to be, you must give up being what you are.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	Today, as a Muslim, I have been shattered by the horror of recent events; the display of death and indiscriminate killing we've all witnessed has dented humanity's confidence in itself. Terror on this scale affects everybody on this small planet, and no one is free from the fallout.
Popularity: -4 Vote:	Violence is almost an everyday occurrence in some Muslim lands: it should not be exacerbated by revenge attacks on more innocent families and communities.
Popularity: 0 Vote:	We are still busy releasing this CD and organizing its distribution in the parts of the world where it hasn't been circulated. I've already started on the second project.
Popularity: -3 Vote:	We had this instrument sitting around in the house again, and it was very difficult for me not to pick it up. I was just glad I could remember the chords.
Popularity: -2 Vote:	When many astronauts go to space, they see the insignificant size of the earth and vastness of space, and they become very religious, because they have seen the Signs of Allah.
Popularity: -1 Vote:	While Islam is projected today as inimical and hostile to Christianity, Judaism and other Religions, the truth is that the Prophet was the great educator, teaching people the meaning and explanation of their own Religion, correcting and assisting them in following the right path, as taught by previous Prophets and messengers.
Popularity: -4 Vote:	With reports linking the atrocities at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon to Muslim groups, the parents and children of Islamia primary school in north London have become possible targets of hate and harassment.

Biography

Yusuf Islam (born Stephen Demetre Georgiou, July 21, 1948) is best known as Cat Stevens, a popular singer-songwriter during the 1960s and 1970s who sold over 40 million albums. He adopted the faith of Islam in 1978 after a near death experience and became an outspoken spokesman for Islam. In 1971 he also wrote music specifically for the film Harold and Maude.

His most popular songs included Peace Train, Morning Has Broken, Moonshadow, Wild World, Father and Son, Matthew and Son, and Oh Very Young. Many of them were performed only with him playing either the guitar or piano.

He currently lives with his wife and five children in London, where he is an active member of the Muslim community. He has founded the charities Muslim Aid and Small Kindness to assist African famine victims. He holds authority in any current release of both his songs and recordings that he previously made under the name of Cat Stevens. A box set of his music, as well as remastered versions of his original albums recorded under the name of Cat Stevens has since been released on CD.

Early life

Georgiou was born in London, England, the third child of a Greek Cypriot father and a Swedish mother. The family lived above the restaurant that his parents operated on Shaftesbury Avenue in the West End. Although his father had a Greek Orthodox background, Georgiou was sent to a Roman Catholic school. When Georgiou was approximately eight years of age his parents divorced, although they both continued to live above the restaurant. Later, his mother moved back to Sweden and took him with her where he briefly attended school for six months. At age 17 he attended art school.

Early music career

Eager to move his music career forward, Georgiou (Yusuf) sought the help of manager/producer Mike Hurst by literally knocking on his door and asking to play some of his songs for him. Not wanting to be rude, Hurst let him and when Georgiou (Yusuf) was finished Hurst told him "You're bloody great! What's your name?" Georgiou (Yusuf) answered "My name is Stephen but they call me Cat Stevens", and for most of his life Stevens was the name he adopted. As to why he was called Cat Stevens, Georgiou (Yusuf) told Hurst that a girl told him he has eyes like a Cat. As Cat Stevens he published several songs and in 1966 (at age 18), he had his first hit with I Love My Dog. He then toured with moderate success.

On August 14, 1967, his voice joined with other recording artists on the airwaves of Wonderful Radio London bemoaning the loss of the pirate radio station which had helped create his first hit record. (See IFPI 'Conflicts of Interest'.) It was around this time that Variety editor Peter Bart refered to Cat Stevens as "looking like a homeless person."

Illness

Later that same year at age 19, he entered a hospital and was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Conversion

Stevens nearly drowned in a freak accident near the end of the 1970s. He pleaded with God to save him. Stevens described the event in a VH1 interview some years later: "I said 'please, God, I'll do anything for you, I'll work for you...'" And thus, Stevens began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam. A song from his 1972 album Catch Bull At Four, entitled Boy With A Moon And Star On His Head, may have been a sign of this change. He converted to the Islamic faith in 1978 and he legally changed his name to Yusuf Islam.

Muslim faith and (Yusuf) Islam's musical career

Following his conversion, (Yusuf) Islam abandoned his previous career as a pop star. At one point he wrote to the record companies asking that his music no longer be distributed, but his request was denied.

In 1985, (Yusuf) Islam decided to return to the public spotlight for the first time since his religious conversion when he became aware of the famine threatening Ethiopia. He attempted to join with other artists as part of the historic Live Aid concert and he wrote a special song for the occasion. He was excluded from the line-up.

He has since resumed making recordings featuring Islamic lyrics accompanied only by basic percussion instruments in his compositions. He also produced an album called A is for Allah as an instruction for children. Among his other interests is a Website on the Internet called Mountain of Light (see link below.)

Political and religious controversy

In 1989, (Yusuf) Islam created both political and religious controversy when he made comments supporting the Iranian fatwa pronounced on the life of Salman Rushdie, following the author's publication of his novel The Satanic Verses. This religious edict held that it was the obligation of all Muslims to kill Rushdie.

On February 21, 1989, (Yusuf) Islam delivered an address at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University), in which he stated that Salman Rushdie's book was blasphemous and that under Islamic law:

"Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death."

The public reaction to this speech was negative. It resulted in a backlash against Islam and a drop in his record sales. This prompted (Yusuf) Islam to state later that such a death sentence can only be carried out by the authority of a court in an Islamic society and that he is opposed to anyone taking the law into their own hands by murdering Salman Rushdie. (See links below for more details.)

2003 recordings

In 2003, (Yusuf) Islam once again recorded the song Peace Train for a compilation CD which also included performances by David Bowie and Paul McCartney. He performed in Nelson Mandela's 46664 Concert with Peter Gabriel, for which he both performed and recorded in the English language for the first time in 25 years. Islam explained that the reason why he had stopped performing in English was due to his own misunderstanding of the Islamic faith:

"This issue of music in Islam is not as cut-and-dried as I was led to believe," he said. "I relied on hearsay, that was perhaps my mistake."

In December 2004, he released (with Ronan Keating) a new version of Father and Son. It debuted at number 2, behind Band Aid 20's Do They Know It's Christmas?. The proceeds of Father And Son were donated to the Band Aid charity. Boyzone also had a hit with a cover version of the song.

Denial of entry into the United States

On September 21 2004, (Yusuf) Islam was travelling on United Airlines Flight 919 from London to Washington. While the plane was in flight, the Advanced Passenger Information System flagged his name as being on a no-fly list. Customs agents alerted the Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained by the FBI.

The following day (Yusuf) Islam was deported back to England. The United States Transportation Security Administration claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities." The United States Department of Homeland Security specifically alleged that (Yusuf) Islam had provided funding to the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, although it did not offer any proof of its allegation.

(Yusuf) Islam's deportation provoked a small international controversy and led British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to complain personally to Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations. Powell responded by stating that the watch list was under review, and added:

"I think we have that obligation to review these matters to see if we are right."

On October 1, 2004, (Yusuf) Islam was reported to have requested the removal of his name

"I remain bewildered by the decision of the US authorities to refuse me entry to the United States."

Man of Peace Award

On 10 November 2004, Yusuf Islam was presented with a Man of Peace award by the private foundation of former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev for his "dedication to promote peace, the reconciliation of people and to condemn terrorism". The ceremony was held in Rome, Italy and attended by five Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

Libel case

As a footnote to the actions take by the U.S. government in deporting Islam as a terrorist, the The Sun and The Sunday Times British newspapers had published reports in October 2004 which stated that the U.S. was correct in its action. On February 15, 2005 a British court ruled that both newspapers had defamed Islam by publishing false statements about him. Both newspapers acknowledged that Islam has never supported terrorism and that to the contrary, he had recently been given a Man of Peace award. Yusuf responded that he was:

"... delighted by the settlement" which "helps vindicate my character and good name. ... It seems to be the easiest thing in the world these days to make scurrilous accusations against Muslims, and in my case it directly impacts on my relief work and damages my reputation as an artist. The harm done is often difficult to repair."

He added that he intended to donate the financial award given to him by the court to help orphans of the recent Asian tsunami.

...(more on Wikipedia)

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Yusuf Islam".

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