In essence his argument was that the Quran never forbade music - on the contrary - but that
his and only his own music reminded him of all the seventies rockstar affiliations he did want to remove himself from. He did perform Islamic spiritual songs, even recorded a CD sometime in the nineties (not for commercial release). But no guitar playing. Too "Cat Stevens", he kept the infidel demons at bay.
But then his teenage son brought a guitar home one day and his father - although rusty - showed him a few chords. And that is, he says, when he realized what his music meant to him and others and that he could play it without the demons of the past returning. In 2000 he supervised a 4 CD box of his past work, it was the first time he actually did collaborate with the record company in a release again since the late seventies. And from then on he edged slowly back, having meanwhile recorded two new CDs over the years under the joint name of now Yusuf/Cat Stevens.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xlKWboCzCY&feature=relatedI'm no Muslim; as most of you know, I'm - scientific evidence where are thou!!! - agnostic (about half of the ten commandments make sense for a humane society though), but I don't mind other people's quest for or immersion in spirituality. Yusuf's religious choice wouldn't have been mine, but it was certainly credible. And if you look at his work and his interviews since the late sixties, he was always looking for spirituality. It seems now that he has found it and sticks with it. I can accept that and I file his CDs now under Y as in Yusuf rather than S as in Stevens. That way he is now closer to Zappa and ZZ Top than to Status Quo and Starcastle, I hope he doesn't mind.
Anyway, the guy's origins were from Cyprus originally. And that is a part of Turkey or should be - ignoring Greek minority opinions here for a moment!
So he's come full circle with his religious beliefs. I'm sure our resident fruit-vending exiled archangel orthodox agrees.
And btw: The concert was excellent.
