Video: Salman Rushdie om Cat Stevens

Det lader til at Nick Cohen fra Standpoint Magazine har været i kontakt med Salman Rushdie, efter at Yusuf Islam alias Cat Stevens har optrådt på et demokratisk “Rally” i USA:

Just had this message from Rushdie: “I’ve always liked Stewart and Colbert but what on earth was Cat Yusuf Stevens Islam doing on that stage? If he’s a “good Muslim” like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar then I’m the Great Pumpkin. Happy Halloween.”

Talkshowværten Jon Stewart har lavet et ”Rally for Sanity” eller “Rally to Restore Sanity” sammen med en anden talkshowvært, Stephen Colbert. Der er en løbende krig mellem konservative i Tea Party-bevægelsen og demokraterne. Der er jo snart valg i USA og kæmpe-møder er et af kampmidlerne.

Cat Stevens går tilsyneladende ind for mord på Salman Rusdie, fordi han er en frafalden, som ikke længere tror på islam. Mange journalister har forsøgt at få Cat Stevens til at tage afstand fra stening, henrettelser og andre af sharialovens grusomheder, men det ser ikke ud til at være lykkedes.

Yusuf Islam sang sin egen “Peace Train”. Fred for nogen, men ikke for alle? Lyder unægteligt meget islamisk.

På en eller anden led er det typisk, at venstrefløjen udstiller sin hovedløse naivisme på denne måde. Fornuft blev ikke genoprettet ved dette møde. Så meget kan man da slå helt fast.

Den lille artikel HER i Standpoint Magazine kan anbefales.

Opdatering den 2. november 2010 fra Pajamas Media hvor Roger L. Simon skriver:

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert: Are They Pro-Islamofascist or Just Stupid?

October 30, 2010 – by Roger L Simon

Much of the blogosphere is appalled, as well it should be, at the selection of Yusuf Islam — né Cat Stevens — to perform at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s now absurdly named “Rally to Restore Sanity.” As the world well knows, Islam/Stevens is the man who endorsed the fatwa on Salman Rushdie and on more than one occasion said he wished he could carry it out and murder Rushdie himself.

And if that isn’t enough — and it should be — Islam is a misogynist who won’t talk to women. (Take another listen to the paternalistic “Wild World” if you want to hear the psychological roots of his profound “religious” belief.)

Mere HER hos Pajamas Media. Desuden videodokumentation. Dels Cat Stevens nylige optræden på omtalte rally og dels hans ord om Salman Rushdie – tilsyneladende fra 1989:

Video: Sam Harris & Robert Wright

I den første video bruger Sam Harris næsten hele sin taletid på islamkritik. Og han er faktisk virkelig interessant at høre på. Robert Wright er apologet og bliver sat til vægs flere gange.

Der er Q&A i anden halvdel og blandt spørgerne i salen finder vi  ingen ringere end Richard Dawkins. Fra 8. oktober 2010 - konference i Los Angeles afholdt af Council for Secular Humanism:

Where Should Seculars Stand Today and Tomorrow on Questions of Religion and Belief

Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times best-sellers The End of Faith (winner of the 2005 Pen Award for Nonfiction) and Letter to a Christian Nation. Mr. Harris’s writing has been published in over fifteen languages. He and his work have been discussed in Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, Rolling Stone, and many other journals. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere. He is co-founder and CEO of The Reason Project, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society.

Robert Wright is the author of the New York Times best-seller The Evolution of God. Previous books include The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life (named by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best 10 books of the year) and Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny (which President Bill Clinton required White House staff members to read). Wright, a recipient of the National Magazine Award for Essay and Criticism, has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and has been named one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine. He has taught philosophy at Princeton and religion at Penn. He is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and editor in chief of Bloggingheads.tv, which he co-founded. He has written for the New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other periodicals.

Der går ca. 3½ minut før programmet starter:

Sam Harris har desuden lige været gæst hos Jon Stewart på The Daily Show. Også her får islam en solid omgang kritik - fra 4. oktober 2010:

Desuden link her til endnu et inteview med Sam Harris hos A.V. Club.

Andre kilder: Council for Secular Humanism,