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 Yusuf Islam
Life as Steven Demetre Georgiou
Steven Demetre Georgiou was born on 21 of July 1948 in London, England. Steven Georgiou was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman. The family lived above Moulin Rouge, the restaurant that his parents operated on Shaftesbury Avenue, a few steps from Piccadilly Circus in the Soho area of London. All of the family, including Steven, worked in the restaurant. At age 12 Steven, who already played piano, began to play guitar and write songs. A few years later his mother returned with him to Gävle, Sweden where he started developing his drawing skills, influenced by his uncle Hugo, a painter. At age 16, he left high school and was accepted at Hammersmith Art School. He was later dismissed Although he enjoyed art - his later record albums would feature his original artwork on the covers Steven wanted to establish a musical career. It was during this period he was first influenced by folk music.
Steven began to perform his songs in coffee houses and pubs. He later started calling himself Cat Stevens, reportedly chosen because a girlfriend said he had eyes like a cat. In 1966, at age 18, he impressed manager/producer Mike Hurst with his songs and Hurst arranged for him to record a demo and then helped him get a record deal; the first singles, "I Love My Dog" and "Matthew and Son" (the title song from his debut album, released in the beginning of 1967) reached Britain's Top 10, and the album Matthew and Son itself began charting.
Over the next two years, Stevens recorded and toured with artists ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Englebert Humperdinck and Cat Stevens was considered a teen pop sensation...
At the age of nineteen, he became very ill with life-threatening tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the mycobacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis, which most commonly affects the lungs but can also affect the central nervous system, lymphatic system, circulatory system, genitourinary system, bones, joints, and even the skin.
In that time, with tuberculous as part of his spiritual awakening and questioning, he wrote as many as 40 songs which were much more introspective than his previous work. Many of those songs were to appear on his albums in years to come.
Conversion to Islam
When Stevens nearly drowned in an accident in Malibu in 1975, he reports having pleaded with God to save him.
"I suddenly held myself and I said, 'Oh God! If you save me, I'll work for you.'
The near-death experience intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth. He had looked into Buddhism "Zen and I Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology", but when his brother David gave him a copy of the Qur'an, Stevens began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam. He formally converted to the Islamic faith in 1977 and took the name Yusuf Islam in 1978.
Life as Yusuf Islam
Following his conversion, Yusuf Islam abandoned his career as a pop star. Song and the use of musical instruments is an area of debate (considered prohibited Haraam by some) in Muslim jurisprudence and is the primary reason he gave for retreating from the pop spotlight. At one point he wrote to the record companies asking that his music no longer be distributed, but his request was denied.
He decided to use the continuing wealth he earns from his music career on philanthropic and educational causes in the Muslim community of London and elsewhere. In 1981 he founded the Islamia Primary School in Salisbury Road in the north London area of Kilburn after that he founded several Islamic secondary schools, and devoted his energy to providing an Islamic education to children and to charitable causes. He founded, and is chairman of, the Small Kindness charity, which initially assisted famine victims in Africa and now supports thousands of orphans and families in the Balkans, Indonesia, and Iraq. He also was Chair of the charity Muslim Aid from 1985 to 1993.
Denial of entry into the United States
On 21 September 2004 Yusuf Islam was traveling on a United Airlines flight from London to Washington, en route to a meeting with singer Dolly Parton who had recorded a cover of "Peace Train" several years earlier and was planning to include another Cat Stevens song on an upcoming album. While the plane was in flight, the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System flagged his name as being on a no-fly list. Customs agents alerted the Transportation Security Administration, which then diverted his flight to Bangor, Maine, where he was detained by the FBI.
The following day, Yusuf Islam was deported back to the United Kingdom. The United States Transportation Security Administration claimed there were "concerns of ties he may have to potential terrorist-related activities." The United States Department of Homeland Security specifically alleged that Islam had provided funding to the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas.
Albums as Yusuf Islam
The Life of the Last Prophet (1995)
Prayers of the Last Prophet (1999)
A is for Allah (2000)
I Look I See (2003)
Indian Ocean (2005)
Footsteps in the Light (2006)
An Other Cup (2006)
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Videos
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Yusuf Islam Documentary
Cat Stevens becomes Yusuf Islam
Note: Watch at your own risk, has musical instruments, and unhijabed women in the video.
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Happy Ramadan
katee