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Re: (TV) Putting a Temporary Cap on One's Talent / RE: Playingwith Patti in the Dark



--- Jay <piazzasanmarco@yahoo.com> wrote:
> That aside, since it's
> irrelevant ti this point, since I doubt any of us are
> privy to the intelligence they had on mr. Peace Train,
> I suggest everyone reserve judgment.  That said, I
> would not be shocked if this turned out to be a crock.

Me neither, but I did get a laugh out of comments by Prof. Juan Cole
(http://juancole.com), no fan of the current US administration, in
his blog the other day:

"...I have a hard time rushing to Yusuf Islam's defense because I
never forgave him for advocating the execution of Salman Rushdie in
1989. He endorsed Khomeini's "fatwa" or death edict against Rushdie
for the novel, Satanic Verses. He later explained this position away
by saying that he did not endorse vigilante action against Rushdie,
but would rather want the verdict to be carried out by a proper
court. These are weasel words, since he was saying that if Khomeini
had been able to field some Revolutionary Guards in London to kidnap
Rushdie and take him to Tehran, it would have been just dandy if he
were then taken out and shot for having written his novel. In my
view, that entire episode of the Khomeini fatwa showed how sick some
forms of Muslim activism had become, and served as a foretaste of
al-Qaeda's own death warrant served on a lot of other innocent
people.

And, the disavowal wasn't even consistent. AP reported on March 8,
1989, that "Cat Stevens Endorses Rushdie Death Sentence Again,"
writing:

' Former pop singer Cat Stevens reiterated his support for the
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death sentence against Salman Rushdie,
saying the author's treatment of Islam was "as good as stabbing
Moslems in the heart." . . . "It's got to be seen as a deterrent, so
that other people should not commit the same mistake again," Stevens
said in an interview with the television show "World Monitor,"
produced by The Christian Science Monitor . . Stevens, who said the
novel's treatment of Islam was "as good as stabbing Moslems in the
heart," suggested that Rushdie should repent writing the book. "If he
manages to escape (the death sentence) he still has to face God on
the day of judgment," he said. "So I would recommend to him to
sincerely change his ways right now." '

At the time, Rushdie's life was in imminent danger, and Cat Stevens
was skating pretty close to inciting to murder. (What else is the
"deterrent" he is talking about?) 

So, to steal from Bill Maher:

NEW RULES: If you advocate the execution of novelists for writing
novels, you and John Ashcroft deserve one another.
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