Sean Hannity And Panel Rail On The ‘Rally To Restore Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam’
In preparation for Tuesday’s midterm elections, Fox News did something rather extraordinary – it rolled out its self described ‘A-team’ for its Sunday programming. And had you been watching Hannity, you would have seen host Sean Hannity and his panel discuss Jon Stewart‘s “Rally to Restore Sanity,” but focusing on the inclusion of Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam as a participant in a comedy bit over Trains of all sorts (Peace, Crazy and Love as it were.) Hannity (and panel) all expressed predictable outrage over Yusuf’s inclusion, given his alleged support of the fatwa against author Salmon Rushdie for his tome Satanic Verses.
The “Great American Panel” featured John Fund, Pat Cadell, and Andrea Tantaros who all expressed indignation that Yusuf was included given his history. Mr. Fund seemed to think that Jon Stewart and his writers/production team had no idea of the controversy, which is a rather remarkable concept giving Fund’s stature at the Wall Street Journal.
Even more remarkable? That none of the panelists knew that Yusuf has repeatedly clarified that his comments were completely taken out of context. Regardless of one believes that to be true, surely it merits mention? In his website Mountain of Light, Yusuf clarified his original comments from 1989:
Because of imaginary scenarios set by courthouse TV interviewers, in 1989 I was drawn into making stupid and offensive jokes about Rushdie on a program called, ‘Hypotheticals’; however they were meant to lighten the moment and raise a smile – as good ol’ British sense of humor occasionally is known to do – unfortunately for me…it didn’t.
In 1989, during the heat and height of the Satanic Verses controversy, I was silly enough to accept appearing on a program called ‘Hypotheticals’ which posed imaginary scenarios by a well-versed (what if…?) barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC. I foolishly made light of certain provocative questions. When asked what I’d do if Salman Rushdie entered a restaurant in which I was eating, I said, “I would probably call up Ayatollah Khomeini”; and, rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author, I jokingly said I would have preferred that it’d be the “real thing”.
Criticize me for my bad taste, in hindsight, I agree. But these comments were part of a well-known British national trait; a touch of dry humor on my part. Just watch British comedy programs like “Have I Got News For You” or “Extras”, they are full of occasionally grotesque and sardonic jokes if you want them! On one particular broadcast of “Have I got News…” Ian Hislop, the editor of British satirical magazine Private Eye, personally called me “a Shi’ite” (doesn’t take too long to work out with a twist of an English accent what he meant by that).
Certainly I regret giving those sorts of responses now. However, it must be noted that the final edit of the program was made to look extremely serious; hardly any laughs were left in and much common sense was savagely cut out. Most of the Muslim participants in the program wrote in and complained about the narrow and selective use of their comments, surreptitiously selected out of the 3-hour long recording of the debate. But the edit was not in our hands. Balanced arguments were cut out and the most sensational quotes, preserved.
The big takeway here? None of the panelists, nor Sean Hannity, appear to have ever watched VH1’s episode of Behind the Music on Cat Stevens, (which you can watch here.) At roughly the 22:00 minute mark, you can see that Yusuf was simply reciting a “literal translation” of the Koran, and claims to be shocked that he was alleged to have supported the fatwa. Worth noting? His explanation cited above, and that in the Behind the Music don’t entirely jive with one another. Nothing like the faith of the converted?
Update – as a poster graciously points out, the NY Times reported at the time that Yusuf stood by his words after having watched a preview of the program:
The singer, who adopted the name Yusuf Islam when he converted to Islam, made the remark during a panel discussion of British reactions to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s call for Mr. Rushdie to be killed for allegedly blaspheming Islam in his best-selling novel ”The Satanic Verses.” He also said that if 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,” said Mr. Islam, who watched a preview of the program today and said in an interview that he stood by his comments.
As I say earlier in the post, Yusuf’s statement claiming that his comment was taken out of context does not jive with the comments made at the time, and reasonable people can sanely conclude that he is backtracking from his original statements.
Watch the panel discussion from Fox News below.
