Yusuf Islam awarded Man for Peace 2004 in Rome

[Muhammad]

Muslim convert Cat Stevens awarded peace prize in Rome

11/11/2004 9:03:00 AM GMT

 

 

Source: AFP

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev presented Muslim convert and former singer-songwriter, Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, with a peace prize, two months after he was denied entry to the United States.

 

Islam was awarded the "Man for Peace 2004" prize at a huge ceremony in Rome city hall marking at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, an annual gathering of Nobel peace laureates led by Gorbachev, who won the prize in 1990.

 

The award is given annually "to a distinguished personage of culture and entertainment for peace messages, fraternity and integration between nations".

 

The 57-year-old Muslim convert, and former singer, said that rock and roll had contributed to the development of society "in the strangest ways, expressing the necessity to abolish taboos and to move forward, but also in giving young people the possibility to express their hopes and weaknesses".

 

"For me it was a way of expressing my ideals for a better world," added the singer, best known for mellow 1970s hits as "Morning has Broken," "Wild World" and "Peace Train". He converted to the Islamic religion in 1977.

 

"Perhaps it's part of the irony that sometimes you have to go through a test in order to achieve a prize," he told reporters. "So maybe that's a symbol. Today I'm receiving a prize for peace, which is actually, I would say, a bit more descriptive of my ideas and my aims in life."

 

In September, Yusuf Islam was expelled from the United States after authorities diverted his flight from Washington to Maine, claiming he was suspected for having ties to terror networks.

 

Islam denounced the incident and described it as an "unjust and arbitrary system," and that he has always condemned and refused terrorism. Few months earlier Islam met with officials of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to talk about philanthropy.

 

Gorbachev seized the opportunity to ask fellow Nobel peace laureates present in Rome – among which is Shimon Peres, Lech Walesa, Rigoberta Menchu, Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Jose Ramos Horta -- "to write a letter to all the other Nobel winners in order to propose initiatives which can facilitate the process of peace in the world".

 

Islam is well known for his charity "Small Kindness", that helps ease the sufferings of children and their parents in countries that were hit by war. It also helped thousands of people in Kosovo, Bosnia, Albania, Montenegro and Iraq.

[LadyDotNet]

....something postive about islam for once - a great example of what Islam is all about - PEACE.

 

Thanks for sharing the article.

[N.O.R.F]

something postive about islam for once - a great example of what Islam is all about - PEACE.

Ditto

 

In a better mood

[N.O.R.F]

I was down in the canteen taking a google at todays papers, and whats playing in the background?

 

Oh baby baby its a wild world, its hard to get by, its hard to get by.........oh baby baby its wild world

 

I will be humming that all day now, but what a coincidence ey?

[Reality Check]

The irony of it all...

[raula]

Philanthropic individual and great contribution to islam-thx for the link.

 

North

Oh baby baby its a wild world, its hard to get by, its hard to get by.........oh baby baby its wild world

glossy tunes indeed-I like it more with Maxi priest my fav.album(Best of me w/Maxi P.)