Tomorrow is the birthday of Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens, and formerly efore that Steven Georgiou).
Dangerous Minds recently ran a piece by Peter Choyce of KXLU on why it’s time we forgive Yusuf for that unfortunate Salmon Rushdie fatwa thing. I personally think it was partially a “young Muslim” taking his teachings a little too literally, and partially poor phrasing on his part to not make it explicitly clear his opinion differed (if it indeed it did, at the time). And of course, some distorted media hyping just twisted the knife, as it were. Looking at what we know of his life and music, the good that he has done, I’m willing to accept it was a gaff. His actions and the music that remains easily outweigh those unfortunate words, and nothing he has publicly done or said since has contradicted this.
While it might be poor form to bring this up on his birthday (or technically, birthday eve), I can’t think of a much better birthday present for someone than forgiveness.
The Troubadour Tribune 