It doesn’t help that Yusuf Islam called for the murder of Salman Rushdie live on TV, which connects his odiousness to his work in a way the other artists transgressions often aren’t.
"His odiousness" was less a personal jihad to see Rushdie killed and more the end result of ill considered comments about what different systems of law state after being drawn in and questioned on the contentious issue live.
I have no feelings about him either way. I've read thru Islam's statements and gotten the best context I can. The adjective I would apply to all of it is hapless.
More than anything, Islam seems ill equipped to handle these matters. And to be fair, he indicated he is not the guy to come to for this topic.
I would bolster that to say that if someone truly wanted a substantive, educated opinion about fatwa, they would have gone to someone capable of giving them that.
The context for one of the two(?) TV statements on air was Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals.
Great TV factual, devilish, host led open panel discussion about hair trigger dilemmas of real life and law staged by an international QC (now KC) and human rights lawyer.
It was literally about exploring the gap between written law, law as practicied, morals and ethics, and circumstances that would test anyone.
Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam was a typical guest .. an everyman of no particular deep study into such things, just one of many on the Clapham omnibus.
Taking anything said by anyone on that particular show, sans context, as a literal statement of their core personal belief is tenuous at best.
Nonsense. Yusuf Islam is a Sunni Muslim and the fatwa wass issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, a Shia cleric. So there was no reason for him to recognize the fatwa as legitimate, and he literally said "He must be killed. The Qur'an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet, then he must die."
There is no ambiguity here, Yusuf Islam called for Salman Rushdie's killing over a book that a Shia cleric claimed insulted the prophet. A book I might add that neither of them ever read. Later that year he again said Rushdie should be killed in a different context.
Only nonsense from a hard core fundementalist PoV really.
Any notion why you have such a PoV?
In the TV context it was clearly a rhetorical / hypothetical statement .. one of the two utterances was literally on a show titled "Hypotheticals" .. which I guess you watched along with reading the Qur'an, numerous commentaries, reading Rushdie's book, etc.
according to wikipedia "it was just a joke bro" lol, at the time during the show, did anybody laugh? If its the video I just watched, nobody was laughing.
In a statement in the FAQ section of one of his websites, Islam asserted
that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show was
improperly edited.[94]
I just don't see how the video I watched could have been editted in such a way that would misconstrue the words I just saw mouthed by this guy.
> I just don't see how the video I watched could have been editted ..
The video you linked has been edited twice .. once from raw live footage in order to create the TV panel show that went to air, and again a second time to extract and join short specific sections from the TV show to create the segment you linked .. with additional voice over added.
The original TV footage appears to have been sourced from Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals.
The very name "Hypotheticals" might indicate to you how you the second round of editing has led you astray.
The segment you linked has removed all context .. there is nothing of Geoffrey Robertson setting up a situation and instructing panel members "to imagine they are ...".
All you have there is a tight segment lacking the larger context with an added voice over claiming that this is Islam speaking from his heart as himself, nothing about being asked to play himself as a more fundemental true believer.
I have already read the "Hypotheticals". Is he saying God is merely a "Hypothetical"? Is that even allowed with Islam, or was he just cosplaying the Islam part at the time? hehe I liked steve martins take on that egyptian thing, so as a "hypothetical" or as a "joke" yeah I dunno man, those words he mouthed just don't seem to go away.
another edit, steve martin's "king tut", now thats cosplay. Maybe whatever his name was trying to be serious as hypothetically speaking while simultaneously joking about terminating somebody's metabolism in a non consensual manner.
last edit:
I checked on whether cosplay is haram, it is not according to "gemini", can any humans verify this? I'd hate to get killed because I listened exclusively to "gemini" because these AI's are "hallucinators" or whatever tech bro's call it nowadays haha so indeed he could cosplay, be actual Muslim, be joking and hypothetical all at the same time so maybe you're right.
Which "he"? Islam|Stevens or Robertson .. in either case, no, God being Hypothetical was not a central thesis of the show although it's likely something that was bantered about somewhere in the course of at least one of those scenarios.
Maybe look through the transcripts for some mention of any God(s).
> hehe I liked steve martins take on that egyptian thing
I confess I'm unsure as to how Steve Martin (Banjo playing comedian slash actor Martin?) ties into this .. but yes, Hypothetical is a partially scripted staged drama that explored tricky situations, Trolley Problems, and difficult judgements that creep up on people at the edges of law and morality.
The host literally assigned real people "personas" that matched some aspects of that persons real life experience and then asked them to react as their persona through a series of increasingly conflicting and escalating events of the sort that often end up in court.
What ever Cat Stevens is doing there in the show he is absolutely not independantly taking the stage on his own to declare a Fatwa on Rushdie and to call on all Muslims to hunt him down and punish him .. which was the original up thread claim about his behaviour.
so ok I get all of what your saying except what you're leaving out, what was the hypothesis?
Honestly, I doubt either of us will have our minds changed but I do like the guys own explanation
"In response, Yusuf Islam said that some of his comments were "stupid and offensive jokes" made in "bad taste," while others were merely giving his interpretation of Islamic law but not advocating any action."
Honestly, that really is probably the closest I'll get to a satisfying explanation, ie., I came into this thread thinking "Yusuf" done goofed and I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave the thread with an unchanged opinion.
the steve martin bit is how to do a proper cosplay. nobody is taking steve martin out of context lol
> so ok I get all of what your saying except what you're leaving out, what was the hypothesis?
These shows by Robertson had no single scenario, each started with (say) news that people in a cafe had been taken hostage by a unknown assailant .. and built from there. First one guest representing law and order might be asked what their response would be, then they are informed that demands have been made to release convicted terrorists (say). This might build and involve a diplomat, a former singer in the public eye pressed for comment, etc.
I haven't said as I literally last watched the one in question some forty years ago.
Perhaps you can fill us all in given, as you said above, you've read the transcripts and hopefully still have a copy you can look up.
> the steve martin bit is how to do a proper cosplay
