Cat Stevens aka Yusuf Islam Back On Tour After 35 Plus Years

I used to love Cat Stevens, until he abandoned music for Islam in 1977 and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. He also happened to support Iran's death fatwa against writer Salman Rushdie way back in the late 1980s by quoting the Quran regarding blasphemy. Though he claims he did not actually support the fatwa, per se, it's the same thing really. If you quote a verse from Islam's holiest of books that calls for death for blasphemy, you support it.

He ventured back into pop music back in 2006 with the release of a new album, and is finally back on tour after all these decades.

His North American tour is called "The Peace Train... Late again" and the first one in 38 years.

He's 66.

Here's an article about his sold out Canadian concert.

Here's some interesting information on the fatwa incident and what Yusuf/Cat has been doing since.

H/T Tarek Fatah

Bill Maher and Salman Rushdie Discuss "9/11 Liberals"- or those who get the Muslim issue

I think Bill Maher is generally a liberal ass, but he at least gets the Islam problem, which most liberals don't. This is a great discussion between Maher, Salman Rushdie, Chris Matthews (who remains an ass) and several others regarding "9/11 liberals", or those who after 9/11 remained liberal on most issues other than the Muslim issue. Maher includes the late Christopher Hitchens, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris as 9/11 liberals.

This aired on September 21, 2012.

Salman Rushdie's Head Worth 3.3 Million Now

Salman Rushdie, the British Indian writer, has lived with a fatwa on his head for the last 23 or so years. In 1989 Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini placed a death fatwa on Rushdie for writing the so-called 'blasphemous' novel "The Satanic Verses". And that fatwa is still going strong.  Rushdie had to cancel an appearance at a literary festival in India early this year because of death threats, and now the bounty on his head has increased some $500,000 for a whopping $3.3 million total, thanks to the Iranians.  

Cleric Hassan Sane'i, and his Khordad Foundation, seems to think that had Rushdie been killed, no-one would have dared  make the anti-Islam film "The Innocence of Muslims", and so it is imperative to snuff him out, and there's no better time than now.  Otherwise, “the movie offending the prophet will not be the last contemptuous attempt."

Sanctioned murder in the name of religion.  How charming. Oh yes, definitely a religion of peace.

Death Fatwa For Iranian Rapper

What do 31-year-old Iranian rapper Shahin Najafi and Brit/Indian writer Salman Rushdie have in common?  They both have prices on their heads, and both death fatwas originated from Ayatollah's in Iran, that mecca of tolerance. 

Shahin, whose music is socio/political in nature, luckily now lives in Germany where he emigrated to in 2005. A social activist, he writes about everything from sexism to theocracy to censorship, but his latest song "Naghi" is what got him into deep trouble with Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani of Qom. The lyrics skewer the 10th Imam 'Naghi' (aka Naqui) and Shia Muslims take great umbrage with anyone who offends their precious dead Imams, even the lesser known ones. But Golpayegani isn't the only one calling for Najafi's death, shia-online.ir is actually offering a $100,000 reward.  And those behind a campaign to have him hanged for apostasy (initiated by an Iranian news website Asr Emrous), want all Muslims (not just Shi'ites) to search for Najafi and "send him to hell."

Rushdie was forced into hiding for years, who knows if Najafi will be forced to do the same thing, or whether he will just thumb his nose at the mullah's- his songs certainly have done that.

The youtube video causing all the furor.

Another translation of the lyrics.