Please don't shoot the messenger.
Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie
New York Times May 23, 1989
By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
LONDON, May 22 -- The musician known as Cat Stevens said in
a British television program to be broadcast next week that
rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the
author Salman Rushdie, ''I would have hoped that it'd be the
real thing.''
The singer, who adopted the name Yusuf Islam when he
converted to Islam, made the remark during a panel
discussion of British reactions to Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini's call for Mr. Rushdie to be killed for allegedly
blaspheming Islam in his best-selling novel ''The Satanic
Verses.'' He also said that if Mr. Rushdie turned up at his
doorstep looking for help, ''I might ring somebody who might
do more damage to him than he would like.''
''I'd try to phone the Ayatollah Khomeini and tell him
exactly where this man is,'' said Mr. Islam, who watched a
preview of the program today and said in an interview that
he stood by his comments.
The statements by Mr. Islam and several other participants
in the discussion demonstrate how divided British liberal
intellectuals remain over the affair. British writers and
publishers have signed petitions backing Mr. Rushdie's
freedom to write what he wishes, but there have been no
public readings of his works. 'Not a Pacifist Religion'
Several of the participants defended Mr. Rushdie. The writer
Fay Weldon, for example, said, ''Burn the book today, kill
the writer tomorrow.'' She said she was offended by Mr.
Islam's remarks, which she said incited people to violence.
Also on the show was Dr. Kalim Siddiqui, director of the
Muslim Institute in London and one of the organizers of a
nationwide demonstration against ''Satanic Verses'' that is
scheduled for Hyde Park on Saturday. He said: ''I wouldn't
kill him, but I'm sure that there are very many people in
this country prepared at the moment. If they could lay their
hands on Rushdie, he would be dead.
''As a British citizen, I have a duty, if you like, a social
contract with the British state, not to break British law.
We are not a pacifist religion. We don't turn the other
cheek. We hit back.''
A British bookseller, Tim Waterstone, chairman of the chain
bearing his name, said that intimidation by opponents of the
book ''at the end of the day probably will work.''
''I don't want to see my staff in peril of their life and
health,'' he said, ''and I don't want to see my customers in
peril.''
And the Bishop of Manchester in the Church of England, the
Rev. Stanley Booth-Clibborn, said the British blasphemy law
is indefensible because it protects only the established
Christian church. Other clerics have suggested that the law
be extended to other faiths so Muslim objectors could stop
offensive books through court order. Government Defenders
In the end, Mr. Rushdie's most stalwart protectors have been
those he often said he most dislikes - Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher's Government, which has given him police
protection at a secret location since the Ayatollah's death
threat last February. Iran broke diplomatic relations over
the affair, and though Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe
expressed distaste for the book, he defended Mr. Rushdie's
right under British law and custom to write it.
Muslims in Britain have been divided by the affair. They
demonstrated against the book in several cities late last
year, but they say British news organizations began paying
attention to their objections only after the book was
publicly burned. Dr. Siddiqui said book-burning was not on
the program for Saturday's demonstration.
He and other Muslims who participated in the 53-minute
courtroom-style program, ''A Satanic Scenario,'' to be
broadcast on Britain's Independent Television Network next
Tuesday night, objected to cuts in the three-hour taping
session, held April 15, that omitted the Muslim
justification for punishment of blasphemy.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/18/specials/rushdie-
cat.html
i love him, i think hes a good guy, really.