I almost never write from anger and even less likely to write because of anger at a specific person. This is different. Cat Stevens should not have been anywhere near the big rally on the Mall Saturday. Otherwise known as Yusuf Islam, this is a guy who approved of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the world renowned author who was targeted for death by radical Muslims.

Cat Stevens used to be a pop/rock/folk singer. As far as I am concerned, he was merely a commercial artist who would do anything for money, anything for a hit. He sang, most famously, “The Peace Train” and that soft rock song hit home with a lot of people. It was played millions of times on the radio and it stayed with a generation. Later, Stevens got on “The War Train”, the battle between the west and Islam. He made his choice.

What the hell was he doing at the rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear? My guess is that someone heard that he had been barred from entering the country once a couple of years back and they felt their little heart aching for the guy and wanted to show him he is still loved in this country. Bull. He is not loved, he is not needed and his drippy little song should have been cast into the 8th level of hell a long time ago.

If you doubt that Stevens called for the death of Rushdie, here is a letter Rushdie wrote to the Times of London in regard to a prior letter from Stevens:

However much Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam may wish to rewrite his past, he was neither misunderstood nor misquoted over his views on the Khomeini fatwa against The Satanic Verses (Seven, April 29). In an article in The New York Times on May 22, 1989, Craig R Whitney reported Stevens/Islam saying on a British television programme 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”

He added that “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”

In a subsequent interview with The New York Times, Mr Whitney added, Stevens/Islam, who had seen a preview of the programme, said that he “stood by his comments”.

Let’s have no more rubbish about how “green” and innocent this man was.

Salman Rushdie, New York