Stevens Not The Most Mild And Inoffensive

To the editors:

Although I agree with most of what Peter Charles Mulcahy has to say, I take exception to his facile characterization of, as he calls him, Cat “Peace Train” Stevens (Comment, “The War on (Yusef) Islam,” Sept. 27). Stevens managed to take time out from warbling “Moonshadow” to support the fatwa again Salman Rushdie, whose sins are really limited to an excessive fondness for topical celebrity gossip. To be sure, Stevens was quick to assure the press that he was not encouraging the man on the street to take Rushdie’s death into his own hands; rather, he hoped Rushdie could be duly dispatched by the suitable authorities.

This is not to say he’s a national security risk, nor that the authorities did not drop the ball, but neither is he the most mild and inoffensive of men. “Here Comes My Baby” notwithstanding.

NICOLE E. CLIFFE ’05

September 27