Cat Stevens
I used to really enjoy Cat Stevens music, he is a talented song writer and performer. But I was always confused by his sudden adoption of Islam. When I read his auto biography, I learned that he had been swimming off the coast of California, when he was caught in a riptide and knew he was going to die, and he promised God that if he saved him, he would devote the rest of his life to Him. And later he decided that Islam was the route he needed to take. Why I found this interesting was, that at about the same time, I was snorkeling off the coast of Panama City when I was caught in a rip tide, and I knew that I was going to die. But never once did it occur to me to appeal to some supernatural divine deity to save my ass. I just kept swimming and eventually was able to get out of the rip tide and swim to shore. I guess, I just never was able to understand his dependence on supernatural forces to save him, when I didn't even consider that as a possibility. I still enjoy Cat Stevens early stuff, but now I think he's an idiot.
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Comment by Aric on October 24, 2009 at 1:00am -
I like Cat Stevens early work too.
Also, to prevent any more Cat Stevens-esque conversions, if you get caught in a rip current attempt to swim parallel to the shore ( Or perpendicular to the current.) until you get out of the current. If you can't do that just let the current take you out and don't fight it. It's just going to take you out a few hundred feet and from there you can swim back to shore in an area that doesn't have a current. Do not try to wave to get the attention of someone on shore. Lifting your arms out of the water to wave them will make you less buoyant and cause you to sink underwater.
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Comment by Jake on October 24, 2009 at 6:59pm -
What I would like to know, is how he decided that Islam was the best of his possible choices. With the millions and millions of other religions that have ever existed, he decided that Islam was the best one?
At least he didn't change his name to something Arabic; that would have probably killed his record sales.
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Comment by Doug Reardon on October 24, 2009 at 8:06pm -
He calls himself Yusuf Islam. And he said when he read the Koran he recognized all the characters mentioned in it and it felt familiar and comfortable to him.
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