The National Post reports:
In a videotape of the 1998 event [a Toronto fundraising dinner hosted by an organization that has since been identified by the Canadian government as a "front" for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas] obtained by the National Post, Mr. Islam describes Israel as a "so-called new society" created by a "so-called religion" and urges the audience to donate to the Jerusalem Fund for Human Services to "lessen the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Palestine and the Holy Land."
Mr. Islam then begins a 45-minute speech in English in which he says it is "intolerable" for Muslims to "stand and watch" the situation in the Middle East. He describes Jerusalem as the centre of a land that is holy because of its connection to Allah. "So this city which is blessed because of its religious nature. Therefore, what we see today is the result of the departure of religion from this area, of the uprooting of religion. So many of the people of the faith have been exiled from this region, moved on, to make way for what? Strangely and ironically, they moved on in the name of so-called religion, on behalf of ... the Jews.
Because many religious Jews live in and around Jerusalem, the complaint about the "departure of religion" from the area means that the most obvious interpretation of the label "so-called religion" is probably the correct one: that Judaism isn't a real religion after all. Now, it's one thing to criticize Israelis or even Judaism, but to suggest that it isn't a "real" religion as part of an effort to attack Israel generally is just ridiculous.
Islam is also quoted as saying that there could be "No political concept or construct or treaty or agent except the laws of Allah, which he instructed for this world." Sounds like he would like to see the creation of Islamic theocracies all around the world and denies the validity of any non-Islamic political system, including secular democracies like those in Britain and America.
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I agree with Mr Stevens when he’s criticising Israel but he should have taken his statements one step further and include Islam in his criticisms. All established religions should be barred from our society, they steer people away from their true spiritual nature by the use of false information. Many sections of the Bible were edited out several hundred years ago in an effort to hide God’s true nature and our real connection with it and the universe.
Islam, I suspect does the same. We don’t need these massive hierarchies to tell us how to live, they were established to control not to enlighten us
Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens was not calling Judaism a “so-called religion” as your misleading title suggests. Zionism as a movement is more secular than religious. He is criticizing Zionism, not Judaism. He has also criticised violence/injustice perpetrated by Muslims. Also it is far-fetched to draw conclusions from a theological statement. By the same token a statement calling for exemption of religion and the religious can be likened to fascism as demonstrated by Pol Pot.
Except that no one calls Zionism a “religion”, thus referring to it as a “so-called religion” is nonsensical. The only thing that people refer to as a religion in the context of the foundation of Israel is… Judaism.
So if his statement is to be coherent in the least, he was referring to Judaism.