http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cat-stevens/alliance-of-virtue-islam_b_9101284.html
QuoteAs we settle down into the grip of another New Year, the past slips further away into obscurity and I am soberly having to grapple with the fact that many youngsters' ears have never even heard the Beatles song, "Yesterday." It's an ominous sign of age creeping up and tapping you on the shoulder like a policeman halting you for driving too fast, dangling a rusty bucket in hand and reminding you of your own inescapable mortality.
If that's the case, how much hope can we bank on to imagine they would know that there once really was a guy called Cat Stevens who dreamed of transporting his generation to a better world with a song called "Peace Train"? The chance of these young'uns ever hearing anything more about this old "Cat" becomes even more remote when you realize that he decided to embrace Islam and become a Muslim in 1977, almost 40 years ago, when none of these kids (and some of their parents) were even born.
The next major ponderable impossibility would be for them -- as well as their parents -- to have been given enough accurate information about "why" he decided to jump off the friendly choo choo and align himself to what seems today to be an alien and anti-Western religion, hell-bent on the destruction of civilization as we know it. How can we solve this paradox as we observe the increasingly frightful and blood-chilling news connected to the name of the faith he adopted as his own -- Yusuf Islam?
Listening more closely to the "Cat" and his songs of the '70s might have partially solved the puzzle. When he stunned the music world by walking away from fame and money, all you had to do was to listen to "Father & Son" to hear the last words of the song say, "There's a way and I know, that I have to go -- away..." But that still doesn't really explain "why."
Therein lies the riddle -- and here comes the explanation: What people don't know is that the actual station, at which the earnest peace-seeking singer alighted, was in fact hundreds of light years away from the (wild) world that sprouted around him following his entrance to Islam.
After having reached the peaceful state of submission to God, emptying his ego and bowing his head, learning to pray and fast, it was only one year after his conversion when the Iranian Revolution suddenly shook the planet. This was followed soon after by the war in Afghanistan, the Palestinian Intifada, the Iran-Iraq War, The Satanic Verses publication, the Bosnian Genocide, the list of tragedies rolled on through to 9/11 and all that followed up to the crisis we are facing in the world today with the arrival of ISIS and the ubiquitous war of-and-on terror which has invaded and affected all of us.
Now for the good news: Having recently attended the annual Reviving the Islamic Spirit Convention in Toronto over the Christmas period, it was perhaps one of the most exhilarating reminders of the wonderful faith I (first-person) had discovered and embraced before the dark clouds appeared and negative storm of propaganda against Islam began to hail down upon us.
Unfortunately, very few people know or have access to the enlightening and spiritual teachings of this faith as so much time and attention is paid to the more radicalized elements of the Muslim community. Nobody is saying such deviants do not exist, but they are unrepresentative (approx. 0.01 percent) and they receive an unfair percentage of the media's valuable and influential space, which should be more fairly distributed to cover the real positive representations of the faith and its ethical principles.
Although the new Prime minister of Canada Mr. Justin Trudeau sent a
special video message of welcome and support to the event, there was hardly any other blip on the radar of media consciousness. Shame. Maybe that was because there was no bomb threat, no chaotic scenes or bloodshed; so it passed most people by like a snowflake floating in the breeze without even a whimper.
Why do beautiful things have such a hard time being noticed? And here's the point: If the real intellectual and heart-cleansing message of Islam is not publicized or promoted, then the field is left to the belligerents and deadly aspirants of Armageddon. Can't we try a bit harder to get back on that "Peace Train" again? To recall some lyrics in that anthem, "Why must we go on hating, why can't we live in bliss?"
It was truly refreshing listening to some of the inspiring testaments and speeches of the heart-centered scholars of this religion, reminding us of our common humanity and the links to wisdoms so often forgotten in the flattened landscape of modern reporting these days. The metaphysical mountain of knowledge and wisdom of the scholars of the heart are hardly seen or heard.
One of the illuminated (Western) Muslim scholars of the convention, Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah reminded us of the universal essence in the axis of all being: "Truth is necessarily coherent; it's in your DNA, in your teeth, the dragonfly, the colorful fish of the reef -- it's in the Golden Mean of geometry."
He pointed out that the major problem with "science" today is its separation from metaphysics. How can you study the beauties of the intricately unified geometric patterns of the cosmos and not recognize the awesome intellect and artist behind its existence?
Another problem is how little people know or are informed about the core commonalities between roots of Islam and Christianity and Judaism. As a British Muslim and artist and musician, born and bred in the heartlands of modern Western culture and civilization, it's still disheartening. That's why, when lecturing in public to mainly English-speaking audiences, I personally make sure to remind them that Islam embraces an unshakable belief in Jesus, Moses, Abraham and most prophets and messengers of the One true God mentioned in the Bible.
Like most things, the trouble lies is in the narrowness of our perception, as well as where we first obtain our information about such increasingly politicized subjects. The meaning of belief in God ultimately should lead a person to be the most humane and charitable, exemplified by the true teachers of faith, the chosen missionaries of God. The Last Prophet Muhammad said, "He is not a believer who goes to sleep while his belly is full while his neighbor goes hungry."
He also prophesized that there would arise extremists of faith who's "words go no further than their throats." The name given to radicals in Muslim history has always been the same: outsiders (al-khawarij). The Prophet maintained that the best of affairs lies in the "middlemost" of it, calling for justice, balance and moderation. And this was exactly what the convention was inviting to; the necessity of an "Alliance of Virtue."
It is high time the good people of the world, from all faiths and denominations work together to benefit mankind, through knowledge and good actions. The center is where we can all meet; a place where we can stand high above the sloganizing and chaos caused by religious radicals and soldiers of self-immolation and destruction. One of the memorable sayings of a famous Muslim mystic, Rumi, comes to mind here: "Out beyond the ideas of wrong and right there is a field... I'll meet you there." In that spirit, the words of my old song "Peace Train" also resonate:
Get your bags together,
Go bring your good friends, too
'Cause it's getting nearer
It soon will be with you
Call me Cat or Yusuf, I am an optimist -- and a believer cannot be anything else. Until that great train arrives, I hope that the expanding year will truly be one in which we can resolutely commit to our common humanity, and practice the heavenly teachings of true teachers and guides, many of whom I was honored to meet at the Convention in Toronto.
Peace be with you
Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens)
Cat Stevens, Canadian rock star in the 70s. Also a successful commercial artist that did his own album covers. "Peace Train" is a nice song, but not too big on some of his others.
In 1977 he gave up his worldly possessions and became Yusuf Islam and went for awhile to Iran. Then the Ayatollah happened, and the Middle East went to shit- or more shit than it already was.
Stevens is an intelligent guy. But I have never seen the sense of what he did, but I'm not him. In my opinion he is a semi-delusional so-called visionary that read and saw what he wanted to see in Islam and went that route. I'm pretty sure you have to seriously cherry pick the Koran to come up with a message of peace and love amidst all the "kill the infidels, Fatwa, Jihad and so on messages.
This is the "message" Islam wants us to embrace. Sure, we are all good people until we have enough in your country to introduce Sharia We are all just peace loving people we want to get along, join hands and sing "Koombayah" or whatever.
Religion(s) will never get along. They are adversarial in nature. All those wars in history that were religion based puts the lie to Yusuf Islam's message. Terrorism, imposing Sharia, all that is more true to the nature of Islam in my book.QuoteHe pointed out that the major problem with "science" today is its separation from metaphysics. How can you study the beauties of the intricately unified geometric patterns of the cosmos and not recognize the awesome intellect and artist behind its existence?
The islamic version of intelligent design.
I'm cynical old man, But I don't buy this and I hope the world doesn't either.
QuoteHe pointed out that the major problem with "science" today is its separation from metaphysics. How can you study the beauties of the intricately unified geometric patterns of the cosmos and not recognize the awesome intellect and artist behind its existence?
Yeah, I don't get this, either. How is it a "problem" to not deal with the contentious god idea and focus instead on real, tangible stuff? For example, teaching little kids about the formation of the Milky Way and our own star and then say "remember kids, God did all this!". How does that follow? And shouldn't that sort of judgment be left to individual people rather asserted to them as if it were a scientific finding? A lot of people seem to think that science is a threat to religion. Imho, it's more common for religion to be a threat to science than vice versa.
QuoteUnfortunately, very few people know or have access to the enlightening and spiritual teachings of this faith as so much time and attention is paid to the more radicalized elements of the Muslim community. Nobody is saying such deviants do not exist, but they are unrepresentative (approx. 0.01 percent) and they receive an unfair percentage of the media's valuable and influential space, which should be more fairly distributed to cover the real positive representations of the faith and its ethical principles.
This is why I think he's delusional. Every survey or study I've seen shows the Islamic support of ISIS and terrorism anywhere from 30% to a majority. There are so many examples of efforts to impose Sharia law, so many attacks against civilian targets and other acts that puts the lie to that statement. What is going on in Europe right now is being done by more than .01% of the people involved.
QuoteHe pointed out that the major problem with "science" today is its separation from metaphysics. How can you study the beauties of the intricately unified geometric patterns of the cosmos and not recognize the awesome intellect and artist behind its existence?
I was reading this with a bit of hope, right until I got to right to this part, and all credibility of the author turned to dust, and my hope was crushed.
Yes, I remember Cat. I had the album with Peace Train on it. When I heard he became a Muslim, I thought, "So what? He's still a good artist." But that was 40 years ago, and I was a Christian, tolerant of most all belief systems, because in the end we all believed in the same god, which by the way, has little to do with artistic ability, anyway. We were all hoping for the betterment of mankind, right?
Now my feelings are similar. Still a good artist, but clearly a delusional nut bag, just as delusional as any Christian. And whose motives are now suspect. Perhaps he's one of the good Muslims embracing tolerance and acceptance, but still a delusional nut bag, believing he's walking down a path created by the mystical orders of an invisible higher power. Count me unimpressed.
Amazes me how an otherwise intelligent man can scope in on one aspect of a belief system and essentially ignore the rest.
I wasn't into pop culture much ... but I would see his choice, in the context of African-American roots (which for many do go back to Islam) ... as being similar to the Beetles embracing India. But that was way back then.
How hard it must be, for a philo-German (the opposite of Churchill) to have felt safe enough to go live in Germany in the 1920s ... not knowing the hell that was coming down the tracks. And maybe tied there like Little Nell. Maybe more common for a philo-Italian having gone back to Italy in the 1920s, only to face Mussolini, and wonder what would come of that. So I would expect, that those African-Americans who got back to ... not pagan roots, but Muslim roots ... must feel awkward today. Of course most of them are still with us here in the US, mostly the moderate splinter of the Nation of Islam, who could mourn Malcolm X, but distrust Farrakhan. Now, not only facing rising explicit racism, but also isolation because they have moved from a Muslim cult to main stream Islam. Does Cat Stevens have regrets? Don't we all?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYnWtPytvhI
There is nothing surprising or amazing about a person doing what Stevens do/did. Same thing as Tom Cruise, John Travolta..scientology bullshit. This ha snothing to do with intelligence either.
These people are always more likely to fall into this bullshit and get deep.
Quote from: pr126 on January 30, 2016, 03:54:47 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYnWtPytvhI
Stevens is not only delusional he is a hypocrite.
Quote from: pr126 on January 30, 2016, 03:54:47 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYnWtPytvhI
Wow, that was vile.
Weinberg said it all: it takes religion for good people to do bad things.
When Stevens did his thing I felt he was an honorable and honest guy for doing what his heart and conscience dictated. Now I realize he was just another empty headed, self deluding acolyte that fell into the pit with the rest of the idiots.