Melanie Morgan

Sigh.

Cat Stevens was my musical idol back in the 70's when I could actually slide on my hip hugger jeans.  And my tie-dyed T-shirt was extra-small.

Kind of hunky, huh?

 I remember the last musical concert he gave in the United States, before he disappeared in the world of Islam and changed his name to Yusaf Islam.

I remember it because I was there. Cat Stevens was supposed to be as well. 

Cowtown Ballroom, Kansas City, Missouri.

Big disco ball hanging from the ceiling, with thousands of us Peace Train freaks on-board for Moon Shadow madness. But Stevens never showed. The FM DJ appeared before the crowd and relayed his lame no-show excuse. We were pissed. Now I'm REALLY pissed at his resurgence for Live Earth, and his subtle anti-semitic rants.

It gets worse. WAY WORSE.

From Powerline.com

Pop singer/songwriter Cat Stevens got off the peace train when he converted to the religion of peace back in the '70's and changed his name to Yusuf...Islam. In 1989 Mr. Islam was one of the prominent Muslims who supported the murder of Salman Rushdie.

In the early 1990's Mr. Islam was reportedly one of the Islamists who attended Sudan's Popular Arab and Islamic Conference where he joined representatives from Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Not surprisingly, the Council on American-Islamic Relations finds Mr. Islam to be a soulmate. CAIR made Mr. Islam its featured main speaker at a Virginia fundraiser in 1996.

Earlier this year Deborah Solomon interviewed Mr. Islam for the New York Times Magazine. Solomon gamely but unsucessfuly attempted to elicit Mr. Islam's view of Hamas. For some reason he found it a "loaded question" and declined to respond other than in the doublespeak of front groups such as CAIR.

In addition to his devout belief in Islam and murder, Mr. Islam apparently believes in global warming. Former Vice President Al Gore and his buddies organizing the most boring music festival in history therefore found Mr. Islam an appropriate artist to feature at the German venue of the 'round-the-world festivities in Hamburg, within shouting distance of the old Neuengamme concentration camp. If he had shared them with the crowd yesterday, Mr. Islam's thoughts on the Jews might have created a frisson more intense than the one induced by his somnolent rendition of golden oldies such as "Peace Train." Mr. Islam speaks:

"The Jews seem neither to respect God nor his creation. Their own holy books contain the curse of God brought upon them by their prophets on account of their disobedience to Him and mischief in the earth. We have seen the disrespect for religion displayed by those who consider themselves to be 'God's chosen people.'"

Charles Johnson reviews Mr. Islam's peformance yesterday:

We now have positive proof that Islamism not only destroys the soul, it also makes you write really crappy polemical songs. Here’s Cat Stevens, billed as ‘Yusuf’ to avoid the scary I word, at the Hamburg Live Earth concert, with a very thinly veiled anti-Israel ditty: Yusuf (Cat Stevens) - Ruins - Live Earth.

Via Carter Wood and the National Association of Manufacturers blog Shop Floor, which has followed the Live Earth doings in general and Mr. Islam's involvement specifically.