I am not anti-Islam; I am an lapsed non-conformist atheist who lives in the middle of a Moslem barrio of a Catalan city in Catholic Spain and to me all religions are equal. My feeling on the former Cat Stevens is that if he is able to state in many interviews that the murder of Salman Rushdie is justifiable because SR has 'insulted Allah' and that the Fatwa is irreversible, then I feel I am justified in not ever willingly listening to his music again. It may be irrational given that I have no problems in listening to Wagner, or Sinatra, or James Brown, and many others, all of whom have been accused, variously, of anti-Semitism, wife-bashing, having mafia connections, and a million other offences. The same could be said for film directors such as (provide your own example here) who treated their wives and women like dirt. the same goes for footballers (soccer for non-brits) like Paul Gascoigne who has put his wife in hospital on many occasions. and boxers like Roberto (Manos de Piedra) Duran. The bottom line is that we, as individuals, have the right to listen or watch or support movie stars, boxers, soccer stars American Football stars (OJ), film directors and actors or whoever. And we have the right to exclude them from our lives for any reason we find acceptable, be it rational or otherwise. This has nothing to do with being anti-Moslem; I refuse to listen to Cat Stevens for this reason, and I speak as an ex-fan of his. And that's not to mention homophobic and racist musicians, writers and sportsmen. Mike Pritchard
