ROME – Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev honored the singer once known as Cat Stevens with a peace prize on Wednesday, praising him for charity work and for standing by his convictions despite personal hardships.
Yusuf Islam was awarded the “Man for Peace” prize in Rome at the opening of a meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates. He last made headlines in September, when he turned up on Washington’s no-fly list for having suspected ties to terrorists – a claim he has strongly denied.
The “Peace Train” singer, who largely gave up music after converting to Islam in the late 1970s, mused about the strangeness of being barred from one country while being honored in another.
“Perhaps it’s part of the irony that sometimes you have to go through a test in order to achieve a prize,” he told reporters. “So maybe that’s a symbol. Today I’m receiving a prize for peace, which is actually, I would say, a bit more descriptive of my ideas and my aims in life.”
The musician was expelled from the United States in September after authorities diverted a London-to-Washington flight to Maine to remove him, saying he was suspected of ties to terrorism.
Islam criticized what he called an “unjust and arbitrary system,” and that he has denounced terrorism. He also pointed out that just a few months earlier, he had met with officials of the White House’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives to talk about philanthropy.
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