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Musician Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, performs during a gig in Dublin.
Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini issued the religious decree calling for Muslims to kill Rushdie for alleged blasphemy in his book "The Satanic Verses", and Kavanagh told Victoria's parliament that Islam had endorsed it at the time.
"Although Yusuf now denies supporting attempts to murder Salman Rushdie, he is on record at the time for stating that he wanted to see Mr. Rushdie himself burn, not just an effigy of him, and he would like to have reported Mr. Rushdie's whereabouts to those who were trying to murder him," Kavanagh said.
"Through the assertion of copyright, Yusuf has had removed from the Internet statements by Mr. Rushdie that Yusuf wanted him dead," he added.
In May 1989, the New York Times said Islam told a British television programme that rather than attend a protest where an effigy of Rushdie was burned, "I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing".
Kavanagh said Yusuf needed to remove all doubt by publicly and categorically stating that he does not support the murder of any person for the expression of views, no matter how offensive.
Islam was born in London as Steven Georgiou and had hits in the 1960s and 1970s as Cat Stevens, before converting to the Muslim faith, retreating from the music industry and devoting himself to education and philanthropy.
He gradually returned to music in the 2000s and released the pop album "An Other Cup" in 2006, his first in 28 years, under the name Yusuf. He followed up last year with the album "Roadsinger".
In 2005, the singer won "substantial" damages from two British newspapers which alleged he had been involved in terrorism after Islam was refused entry to the United States the previous year on what were termed "security grounds".
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"Although Yusuf now denies supporting attempts to murder Salman Rushdie, he is on record at the time for stating that he wanted to see Mr. Rushdie himself burn, not just an effigy of him, and he would like to have reported Mr. Rushdie's whereabouts to those who were trying to murder him," Kavanagh said.
"Through the assertion of copyright, Yusuf has had removed from the Internet statements by Mr. Rushdie that Yusuf wanted him dead," he added.
In May 1989, the New York Times said Islam told a British television programme that rather than attend a protest where an effigy of Rushdie was burned, "I would have hoped that it'd be the real thing".
Kavanagh said Yusuf needed to remove all doubt by publicly and categorically stating that he does not support the murder of any person for the expression of views, no matter how offensive.
Islam was born in London as Steven Georgiou and had hits in the 1960s and 1970s as Cat Stevens, before converting to the Muslim faith, retreating from the music industry and devoting himself to education and philanthropy.
He gradually returned to music in the 2000s and released the pop album "An Other Cup" in 2006, his first in 28 years, under the name Yusuf. He followed up last year with the album "Roadsinger".
In 2005, the singer won "substantial" damages from two British newspapers which alleged he had been involved in terrorism after Islam was refused entry to the United States the previous year on what were termed "security grounds".
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