Peace train

Okay, I may have been too hasty regarding Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) last week. In fact, I may have been wr*&$. Wait, let me try that again. I may have been wro$-. Obviously, something's up with the keyboard, but you get the point.

Anyway, if this article (reg. required) from Sunday's London Times is accurate, Islam didn't actually support the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. He simply supported a "letter campaign requesting the book's publisher to withdraw support", which is somewhat less odious than calling for the man to be killed. {Actually, it's way, way different and I have no problem with such a protest at all.}

I'm sure his political views wouldn't always find favor with me, but

[r]ecently he admitted he had become too partisan, citing Muhammad Ali as another Muslim convert whose radicalism was tempered by time. "There's always a zealous period," he said. "I used to want to rebel against everything, and that was great. After that, you get back to the job of living."

. . . Islam was extremely vocal in his condemnation of the September 11 bombings in New York and Washington, affirming his duty to make clear that such acts of "incomprehensible carnage" had nothing to do with Islamic belief. He also spoke out against other recent terrorist outrages.

Having read this, I'll cut him some slack.