Yusuf Islam [1] (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on July 21, 1948) performed under the

name Cat Stevens from 1966 to 1978. He is an English musician, singer-songwriter,

educator, philanthropist, and a prominent convert to Islam.

At the outset of his musical career, Georgiou adopted the name Cat Stevens. Under this
name he sold over 60 million albums around the world from the 1970s continuing to the
present day. His most notable original release albums are Tea for the Tillerman and
Teaser and the Firecat, both of which were certified by the RIAA as having achieved
Triple Platinum status (3 million sales each) and Catch Bull at Four, which sold half a
million copies in the first two weeks of release and was Billboard's #1 LP for three
consecutive weeks. His most well-known songs include "Morning Has Broken", "Peace
Train", "Moonshadow", "Wild World", "Father and Son", "If You Want To Sing Out, Sing
Out", "Trouble" and "The First Cut Is the Deepest", which earned him two ASCAP
songwriting awards.

Stevens became a convert to Islam in 1977 and in 1978 adopted the name Yusuf Islam,
leaving his music career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the
Muslim community. A decade later, controversy arose when he was reported to have
made comments that seemed to support a fatwa calling for the death of author Salman
Rushdie, but later stated that he had been misinterpreted. He publicly and vehemently
condemned the September 11 attacks and 7 July 2005 London bombings, saying they
were not consistent with the teachings of the religion of Islam, and mourned the loss of
life. In 2004, he returned to the public eye when he was denied entry into the United
States after his name appeared on a no-fly list.[2] He successfully sued British newspapers
for libel because of their reports on this incident.[3]

Yusuf Islam returned to the pop music world in 2006, recording and actively promoting
his first pop music album of new songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. He has been
given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2004
Man for Peace award and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. He lives with his wife,
Fauzia Mubarak Ali (who's of Afghan and Turkish descent),[4] and five children in
London and spends part of each year in Dubai.[5]