[lbo-talk] Juan Cole: The Sin of Cat Stevens

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Mon Sep 27 07:07:20 PDT 2004



>http://www.juancole.com/2004_09_01_juancole_archive.html#109592379002363404
>Thursday, September 23, 2004
>Cat Stevens Deported
<snip>
>But I have a hard time rushing to Yusuf Islam's defense because I
>never forgave him for advocating the execution of Salman Rushdie in
>1989. He endorsed Khomeini's "fatwa" or death edict against Rushdie
>for the novel, Satanic Verses. He later explained this position away
>by saying that he did not endorse vigilante action against Rushdie,
>but would rather want the verdict to be carried out by a proper
>court. These are weasel words. . . .

John Kerry committed precisely the same sort of weaseling:

<blockquote>Senator John Kerry said Monday that he would have voted to give the president the authority to invade Iraq *even if he had known all he does now about the apparent dearth of unconventional weapons or a close connection to Al Qaeda.*

*"I believe it's the right authority for a president to have,"* said Mr. Kerry, who has faced criticism throughout his presidential campaign for that October 2002 vote. (emphasis added, Jodi Wilgoren, "Kerry Says His Vote on Iraq Would Be the Same Today," New York Times, August 10, 2004)</blockquote>

Except that Kerry is a senator hoping to become the next POTUS, while Cat Stevens is a singer who isn't running in any election. Is there any wonder that Kerry has taken a massive beating in the polls (after peaking in early July according to <http://www.electoral-vote.com/info/graph.html>)? -- Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>



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