How Can You 'Restore Sanity' With a Fatwa-Cat in Da House?

Roger L. Simon asks--and answers--that most rational of questions:

Much of the blogosphere is appalled, as well it should be, at the selection of Yusuf Islam — né Cat Stevens — to perform at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s now absurdly named “Rally to Restore Sanity.” As the world well knows, Islam/Stevens is the man who endorsed the fatwa on Salman Rushdie and on more than one occasion said he wished he could carry it out and murder Rushdie himself.

And if that isn’t enough — and it should be — Islam is a misogynist who won’t talk to women. (Take another listen to the paternalistic “Wild World” if you want to hear the psychological roots of his profound “religious” belief.)

So what’s up with Stewart and Colbert? Why would they have a man like that singing at their event? Is this PC cultural relativism gone berserk? (“Hey, dude, it’s cool. Yusuf’s into the fatwa thing, you dig? He loves Khomeini just like Foucault did. All cultures are equal, you know. Who are we to judge?”) If that’s so, why not invite Khalid Sheik Mohammed to perform? He actually took the head off Daniel Pearl. He didn’t just talk the talk. He walked the walk.

But I think there’s another explanation for Islam’s appearance and it’s much simpler: Stewart and Colbert are dumb and uniformed. Although they pretend to be more, they are just mildly talented entertainers with the depth of a petri dish who rely on their writers to stoke them with material and ideas. And no one told them Cat Stevens supported killing a fellow artist merely for exercising free expression. And unlike many of you, they simply didn’t know themselves. They thought he was, you know, just a peaceful ex-hippie dude who went Islamic spiritual instead of zen. (Okay, that irritated some people, but so what? It would be nice to see them squirm.)...

Oh, Roger, you're such a trapezoid! All the really cool kids know that issuing fatwas and supporting Hamas is no biggie--not nearly as bad as, say, what McBushitler did at Abu Ghraib. Get on the irony-fueled peace train already, 'cuz holy-moly it's a funsational ride!

Update: Islam sings Cooke:

Another Saturday aft and it's Comedy Central!
I got some buddies name of Stew and Cole-bare.
Now, do they know that Islam's elemental?
And do they really care?

I got in town the other day.
I headed to the Mall right then.
If you gotta fling a fatwa
Do it when you're hot-wa
'Cuz of the blissful state you're in.

Another Saturday aft...

Before I got "reverted"
I was chock full of angst and dread.
But all my agony was quitted
As soon as I submitted
To a cat named Mo-ham-ed...

Update: A strange view of what constitutes sanity

Update: "Truth" invariably trumping "truthiness," some of the faithful "kvell" over a previous Yusuf Islam appearance on the Colbert show.