I have watched and read this movie and book, but not in that order. It is not like I am too, too cool and above and beyond everyone else, no. It's because a Perry Weissman (yeah, they named a shitty jazz band after he) made me "watch and read" (thanks dick)for expository writing in high school. I failed the class miserably yet learned so much that my quaint and remorse writing style is a casuistic reflection of him.
Yusaf Islam/Cat Stevens wrote the soundtrack, or better, he allowed music from Tea for the Tillerman to be used in the movie. I fucking hate that fact. I hate Cat's ideas: (sorry. I'd normally link the article, but the NY Times wants you to register, which you can, and read the article there, or just skim down here)
Cat Stevens Gives Support To Call for Death of Rushdie
By CRAIG R. WHITNEY
LONDON, May 22 -- The musician known as Cat Stevens said in a British television program to be broadcast next week that rather than go to a demonstration to burn an effigy of the author Salman Rushdie, ''I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing.''
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.
The statements by Mr. Islam and several other participants in the discussion demonstrate how divided British liberal intellectuals remain over the affair. British writers and publishers have signed petitions backing Mr. Rushdie's freedom to write what he wishes, but there have been no public readings of his works. 'Not a Pacifist Religion'
Several of the participants defended Mr. Rushdie. The writer Fay Weldon, for example, said, ''Burn the book today, kill the writer tomorrow.'' She said she was offended by Mr. Islam's remarks, which she said incited people to violence.
Also on the show was Dr. Kalim Siddiqui, director of the Muslim Institute in London and one of the organizers of a nationwide demonstration against ''Satanic Verses'' that is scheduled for Hyde Park on Saturday. He said: ''I wouldn't kill him, but I'm sure that there are very many people in this country prepared at the moment. If they could lay their hands on Rushdie, he would be dead.
''As a British citizen, I have a duty, if you like, a social contract with the British state, not to break British law. We are not a pacifist religion. We don't turn the other cheek. We hit back.''
A British bookseller, Tim Waterstone, chairman of the chain bearing his name, said that intimidation by opponents of the book ''at the end of the day probably will work.''
''I don't want to see my staff in peril of their life and health,'' he said, ''and I don't want to see my customers in peril.''
And the Bishop of Manchester in the Church of England, the Rev. Stanley Booth-Clibborn, said the British blasphemy law is indefensible because it protects only the established Christian church. Other clerics have suggested that the law be extended to other faiths so Muslim objectors could stop offensive books through court order. Government Defenders
In the end, Mr. Rushdie's most stalwart protectors have been those he often said he most dislikes - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Government, which has given him police protection at a secret location since the Ayatollah's death threat last February. Iran broke diplomatic relations over the affair, and though Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe expressed distaste for the book, he defended Mr. Rushdie's right under British law and custom to write it.
Muslims in Britain have been divided by the affair. They demonstrated against the book in several cities late last year, but they say British news organizations began paying attention to their objections only after the book was publicly burned. Dr. Siddiqui said book-burning was not on the program for Saturday's demonstration.
He and other Muslims who participated in the 53-minute courtroom-style program, ''A Satanic Scenario,'' to be broadcast on Britain's Independent Television Network next Tuesday night, objected to cuts in the three-hour taping session, held April 15, that omitted the Muslim justification for punishment of blasphemy.
What a dick, huh? "If you want to speak out, speak out. If you want to be free, be free." Not against his ideas, though. Such is life. But I'm like him— Just a bitter person. You know that I am.
