Hard Headed Woman

Mkei

"Produce such vile hatred". What newspapers have you been reading?
There are a pile of internet rumours , some of which have been seized upon by the conservative press. Cat suppported 9/11, Cat backs Rushdie's fatwa, Cat gives money to Hammas. All of which, if you ever see an interview with the man, he has completely denied and has preached nothing but peace and the condemnation of violence.
He made, by his own admission, some stupid jokes about the Rusdhie fatwa, which he later completely recanted and wrote on his website, "I never called for the death of Salman Rushdie; nor backed the Fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini--and still don’t."

36 hours after 9/11 he was asked for a statement by the BBC and he said, "I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday. While it is still not clear who carried out the attack, it must be stated that no right-thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action. The Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity. We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims of this sorrowful moment"

Where's the hate?

"Now I've been crying lately
Thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating
Why can't we live in bliss"

Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam, 1971
Recipient of the Nobel "Man of Peace" Award in 2004, presented by Mikhail Gorbachev for "dedication to promote peace, the reconciliation of people and to condemn terrorism"
Recipient of the " The Mediterranean Prize for Peace in Naples, Italy". The award was received "as a result of the work he has done to increase peace in the world"

Love the song and loved the older stuff by Stevens. However, you need to research him more. Read his words on Jews. They weren't warm and fuzzy. And as for the conservative press, there's about ONE. I've heard some of what Yusuf has said through the LIBERAL media. Don't sugar coat what the man says even if he's a talented musician.

There's no sugar quoting required. A view on the political situation in Israel and in particular a view that the subjugation of the Palestinian people and their notions of statehood is wrong and unjust, is not hatred, and definitely not vile hatred. Its simply an opinion, and not an uncommon opinion at that.
I'm a white, Roman Catholic Briton and I have a great deal of trouble reconciling myself to Israel's actions, I can only imagine how much harder that would be for someone who spends a great deal of time on humanitarian efforts in the region.
His allegations which I'm aware of, that Judaism is a "so-called religion" may be naive, might be stupid, thoughtless and even provocative, but "vile hatred"????

As to the conservative press , I'm assuming you're referring to the U.S. If you are then I cant speak with any degree of knowledge so I'll defer to you, (although, incredibly just over 50% of Americans polled in 2010 voted Fox News as their most watched ,and indeed most trusted cable news channel - so clearly, for that 50% at least, truth and agenda-free reporting is a low priority). If we're talking conservative press, in Briton and Europe, there are at least 5 major daily newspapers in the UK that demonise the man, (and indeed Islam given half a chance), and another couple in France.
Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam may be no saint, and he's certainly no political genius but neither does he preach nor practice "vile hatred". And that was the point of my retort.

I was actually referring to one incident specifically, that of the salman rushdie's death threats.

youtube.com/…

I imagine you've seen it before but tell me that that isn't vile hatred. no matter what he said subsequently to that, for me, that is unforgivable.