Cat Stevens

Cat Stevens (born July 21, 1948) was the stage name of a popular singer-songwriter during the 1970s. Born Stephen Demetre Georgiou in London, he has since changed his name to Yusuf Islam after converting to Islam.

Musical Career

He published several songs in the late 1960s and went on tour, with moderate success. In late 1967, at age 19, he entered a hospital and was diagnosed with tuberculosis; his career seemed over. But it was in the early 1970s that the public really began to discover Stevens' music. In the ten years after 1967 he sold 40 million albums.

His most popular songs included "Peace Train", "Morning Has Broken", "Moon Shadow", "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. In 1971 he also wrote music specifically for the film Harold and Maude. For several decades these songs were unavailable except in the film; most of them have since been released on the disc Footsteps in the Dark. He also had a hit with a cover of Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night".

According to an episode of VH1's Behind The Music, Stevens nearly drowned in a freak accident near the end of the 1970s. He pleaded with God to save him. Stevens was known to comment, "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. He converted to that faith in 1978, changed his name to Yusuf Islam, and 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; the request was denied. He appears to have changed this position, as his web site today lists the available albums. He states that much of the royalties are given to charity.

Recent Activites and Controversies

In 1985, Stevens/Islam, aware of the world hunger problem gripping Ethiopia, decided to return to the public spotlight for the first time since his religious conversion in the historic Live Aid concert, and wrote a special song for the occasion. But because of the already growing amount of artists who had already been signed to perform, Stevens/Islam never got the opportunity to perform publicly at that time.

His comments in 1989 concerning Salman Rushdie after the publication of Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses provoked controversy. During this time period an Islamic fatwa (religious ruling) was issued, holding that it was an obligation of Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie. Yusuf Islam publicly stated that Rushdie was indeed guilty of blasphemy against Islam, and Rushdie deserved to be killed. This led to a public outcry, and a drop in record sales. In response to this criticism, Yusuf Islam has since clarified that he believes that 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 Rushdie.

During the Gulf War he raised further controversy by his comments in support of Saddam Hussein.

He has resumed making Islamic music choosing to use only the human voice and basic percussion instruments in the compositions. He has also released the album A is for Allah, an instruction for children. He has been instrumental in creating a web site called Mountain of Light (link below).

He lives with wife and five children in London, where he is an active member of the Muslim community. He founded the charities Muslim Aid and Small Kindness to assist African famine victims.

In 2003 he recorded "Peace Train" once more for a compilation CD which included David Bowie and Paul McCartney and performed in Nelson Mandela's 46664 concert with Peter Gabriel, recording and performing music in English for the first time after 25 years.

"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."

Today, Stevens/Islam continues to have authority in any reissue of his songs and albums made as Cat Stevens in the 1970s. A box set of Stevens' music, as well as remastered versions of his original albums, has since been released on CD.

On September 22 2004, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration denied him entrance to the U.S., saying that he was registered on a watchlist. The Guardian Unlimited reported "American officials diverted a transatlantic flight 600 miles in the belief that the presence of Yusuf Islam, the charity worker and pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens, posed an imminent threat to national security... United Airlines flight 919 from London to Washington was diverted to Bangor, Maine, on Tuesday night after US customs officers told the TSA that Mr Islam was on board. Airline officials had failed to spot his name earlier."

Homeland Security spokesman Brian Roehrkasse stated, "Yusuf Islam has been placed on government watch lists because of concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities. More recently, the intelligence community has received information that further heightens this concern. Our job at Homeland Security is to act upon the information we receive through the intelligence community in order to keep those that might be of harm to national security out of our country." Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the denial of entry to internationally-respected Islamic figures "sends the disturbing message that even moderate and mainstream Muslims will now be treated like terrorists".

Islam was formally deported. According to Yusuf Islam's website, he had visited the U.S. just two months earlier. However, Islam had been expelled from Israel four years earlier because of alleged finanical support of radical Islamic groups.

Discography (albums)

This list excludes the many compilation albums which have been made. The years link to the relevant year in music.

as Cat Stevens:

Matthew & Son (1966)
New Masters (1967)
Mona Bone Jakon (1970)
Tea for the Tillerman (1970)
Teaser and the Firecat (1971)
Catch Bull at Four (1972)
Foreigner (1973)
Buddha And The Chocolate Box (1974)
Saturnight (1974)
Numbers (1975)
Izitso (1977)
Back To Earth (1978)
Box Set (2001) compilation containing many rarities and live tracks

as Yusuf Islam:

The Life of the Last Prophet (1995)
Prayers of the Last Prophet (1999)
A is for Allah (2000)

External links

Guardian Unlimited: US jet sent 600 miles to keep Cat Stevens away