Musician Yusuf Islam: Finding music after tragedy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nearly 30 years ago, Cat Stevens retired his name and guitar in his pursuit of Islam and philanthropy. Now, a tragedy has inspired him to use music again for a greater good.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/01\/yusuf_islam_finding_music_after_tragedy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Musician Yusuf Islam: Finding music after tragedy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nearly 30 years ago, Cat Stevens retired his name and guitar in his pursuit of Islam and philanthropy. 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Father and son<\/div>\n

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Back when Cat Stevens discovered Islam (as a faith and surname), he eschewed music to follow a more conservative approach to his religion, famously selling his guitars to raise money for charity. In the years since, Yusuf Islam<\/a> has slowly edged his way back into music \u2013 first through recordings of songs for children, then through sparse vocal and drum arrangements on rare occasions. But after the US government barred him from entering the country because of alleged links to terrorism, Yusuf has began to explore the use of instruments and collaborations with other non-Muslim artists (he acknowledged his fateful US trip was to collaborate<\/a> with musicians in Nashville). Soon after, he scored a Christmas Number 2 single in the UK with his Cat Stevens hit \u201cFather and Son,\u201d sung with Irish star Ronan Keating<\/a>. Now, in response to the tsunamis that killed hundreds of thousands in Asia, Yusuf will headline a charity concert<\/a> featuring local artists in Indonesia next week, along with opening an Indonesian branch of his own charity Small Kindness<\/a>. Featured at the concert will be his first new pop composition in 28 years featuring (gasp) actual musicians, a song called \u201cIndian Ocean.\u201d While pop stars have often performed charity concerts for various causes, the song \u201cIndian Ocean\u201d was written<\/a> especially for the victims of the tragedy. \u201cLike everyone else, I was so shaken by the enormity of this human tragedy, and the song just came without effort,\u201d said Yusuf. \u201cIt is my contribution towards helping to rebuild the broken spirits of the victims of the disaster.\u201d The track features, among others, AR Rahman, the genre-spanning Indian composer\/producer, Magne Furuholmen of A-Ha fame, and Travis<\/a> drummer Neil Primrose. Along with Yusuf\u2019s earlier honouring by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev<\/a> and other Nobel Prize laureates with a \u201c Man of Peace<\/a>\u201d award, Yusuf\u2019s continued high-profile philanthropy may serve to kill his US State Department opponents with acts of (proverbial and real) kindness. Also, Yusuf braved a firestorm of criticism from some Muslims who disagreed with his resurgent musical interests (he issued an extensive response<\/a> to this). Still, the expanded musical breadth may disappoint some who expect a stylistic and prolific re-emergence to Yusuf\u2019s former persona. \u201cIt\u2019s not a return to Cat Stevens,\u201d says Yusuf. \u201cI see it more as a natural response to express my concern as a Muslim and as an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com. He is based in London, England.\n<\/p>\n

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