Editing Cat Stevens (section)

====Salman Rushdie controversy====
{{Main|Cat Stevens' comments about Salman Rushdie}}
In 1989, following an address by Islam to students at London's Kingston Polytechnic (now [[Kingston University]]), where he was asked about the [[fatwa]] [[The Satanic Verses controversy|calling for the killing]] of [[Salman Rushdie]], author of the novel ''[[The Satanic Verses]]'', Islam made a series of comments that appeared to show support for the fatwa. He stated, "He (Rushdie) must be killed. The Qur'an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet, then he must die."<ref>Philadelphia Inquirer, 24 February 1989, p.5A, "Iran: West to blame Islam for forthcoming terrorism".</ref> He released a statement the following day denying that he supported vigilantism and claiming that he had merely recounted the [[Sharia|Islamic Sharia law punishment]] for blasphemy. Subsequently, he commented in a 1989 interview on Australian television that Rushdie should be killed and stated he would rather burn Rushdie instead of an effigy.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/Hypotheticals-a-Satanic-Scenario | title=Hypotheticals-a-Satanic-Scenario| year=1989}}</ref> In a statement in the FAQ section of one of his websites, Islam asserted that while he regretted the comments, he was joking and that the show was improperly edited.<ref name="MountainFAQ">{{cite web|url=http://www.mountainoflight.co.uk/talks_cw.html#20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004154204/http://www.mountainoflight.co.uk/talks_cw.html#18|archive-date=4 October 2011|work=Chinese Whiskers-FAQs|title=Yusuf Islam Wants to See Salman Rushdie Burnt, Right?|publisher=Mountain of Light|access-date=1 November 2014}}</ref>

In the years since these comments, he has repeatedly denied ever calling for the death of Rushdie or supporting the fatwa.<ref name="CBSSundaymorning"/><ref name="Dansby"/>  Appearing on BBC's Desert Island Discs<ref name=":0" /> on 27 September 2020, Yusuf claimed clever "sharp-toothed" journalists had framed his fatwa comment in a misleading way.<ref>Note: Yusuf's denial on Radio 4: "I was really certainly not prepared or equipped to deal with sharp-toothed journalists and the whole way in which the media spins stories, and so I was cleverly framed, I would say, by certain questions where I couldn't, for instance, rewrite the ten Commandments; you can't expect me to do that! At the same time, I never actually ever supported the fatwa. I even wrote a whole kind of press statement very early on which the press completely ignored. And they went for the one which was written by the journalist who originally wrote the story, and so I had to live through that; but the interesting thing is that it brought me to kind of study the whole subject of jurisprudence, which again led me to realise that music, where you have certain rules which are dictated to by certain scholars, you have to dig a bit deeper and you find out that no, hang on, this is an opinion, an opinion, that's what a fatwa is actually. An opinion, which doesn't come directly from the Koran at all."</ref> In a 2007 letter to the editor of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', Rushdie complained of what he believed was Islam's attempts to "rewrite his past", and called his claims of innocence "rubbish".<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/3639714/Letters-to-The-Sunday-Telegraph.html ''Letters to The Sunday Telegraph''], ''Cat Stevens wanted me dead'', last letter on the page dated 6 May 2007.</ref>

On 12 August 2022, [[Salman Rushdie]] suffered a knife attack as he was about to give a public lecture at the [[Chautauqua Institution]] in [[Chautauqua, New York]], United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/13/author-salman-rushdie-attacked-what-we-know-so-far|title=Salman Rushdie attack: What we know so far|website=Aljazeera.com}}</ref> In response to the attack, Yusuf tweeted, "Saddened and shocked to learn about the horrific act on Salman Rushdie my wish is for us all to live in peace. May God grant him and every one else who has suffered from the manic pandemic of violence in this world, a full recovery. Peace".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Islam |first=Yusuf |date=12 August 2022 |title=Twitter |url=https://twitter.com/YusufCatStevens}}</ref>