Cat Stevens' comments about Salman Rushdie to accept the judgment of a British court if it found Rushdie innocent of any crime, blasphemy or otherwise. On 21 February 1989, Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston University in London about his conversion to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie's execution. He replied, "He must be killed. The Qur'an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet, then he must die." Newspapers quickly denounced what was seen as Yusuf Islam's support for the killing of Rushdie and the next day Yusuf released a statement saying
The Satanic Verses controversy of the book's publication, and the book is Viking's all-time best seller. The author of the book himself was not killed or injured as many militants wished, but visibly frustrated by a life locked in 24-hour armed guard – alternately defiant against his would-be killers and attempting overtures of reconciliation against the death threat. A week after the death threat, and after his unsuccessful apology to the Iranian government, Rushdie described succumbing to "a curious lethargy, the soporific torpor that overcomes ... while under attack"; then, a couple of weeks after that, wrote a poem vowing "not to shut up"