The former Cat Stevens—true believer

Yusuf Islam, formerly the writer and singer of such sensitive, lyrical songs as “My Lady D’Arbanville” and “Oh, Baby, It’s a Wild World,” spoke in 1998 at a meeting of a Canadian organization later identified by Canadian authorities as a Hamas front. What is most striking in Islam’s speech is his joining together of his spiritual message about Islam (all ugliness and violence in the world today come from man’s rejection of God) with his political/military message (Muslims must re-conquer Israel and Jerusalem):

Jerusalem, al-Quds, it is a mirror reflecting the reality … If it is dark, if it is bloody, then so too is the world. Today it reflects injustice of the secular man [whom Islam has already identified as the Jew] over the religious man. And how can the secular man be given the control and the sanctuary of the divine place of worship when he doesn’t even respect what is holy? How? And how can those of faith allow that to happen? Therefore, peace will not return until we return to the Holy Land.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 30, 2004 08:36 AM | Send