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Cat Stevens and the unnecessary international crisis.

Yusuf Islam (Steven D. Georgiou) Cat Stevens.

Cat Stevens sang and wrote songs that touched the beauty within the emotion of millions of people. I am two years older than Yusuf but grew up in the same neighbourhood of London at the same time and like him experienced the wonder of the 60s.

When we were kids London had not fully recovered from the devastation of the war.

But he and other great singers comforted and united us.

In my research into human behaviour and in particular the lives of people who have promoted peace, Yusuf did not go missing.

He looked at the beauty of words and wanted to promote harmony and good will.

In reading some of the posts of 2016 and the criticism leveled against him, I think he has a better understanding now, of human behaviour.

He was quoted out of content and his opinions were manipulated to become newsworthy.

He never once said that he supported the death fatwa on S. Rushdie and yet since 1989 this is a topic of discord that has affected his life and peace of mind.

The written word, the interpretation of it and the actions taken because of it have been recorded in our history.

The Shi'ites and the Sunni have been killing each other since the prophet Muhammad died in 632 A.D. Each believed something different from the written word.

In the beginning of the 18th century the Salafi movement, mainly from Saudi Arabia (Wahhabis and Isis) have recently joined in the killing. They are all Muslims but have a different interpretation of the Quran.

In 1618 to 1648 half the population of Europe was destroyed, in a 30 year war, between the Catholics and Protestants. They believed in different interpretations of the written word in the Bible, yet both are Christians.

In our entire recorded history, one group believes in something the other group believes in something else and invariably conflict is the result.

Hundreds of millions of people have died because of what they have learnt to believe.

The unfortunate thing is every one of us believes that our beliefs are the true ones.

And the source of our learning’s is the truth.

So if you are famous and you propose to believe in something you are a sitting target for criticism by people who believe in something else. The news media use this and even look for it as part and parcel of what sells.

This is because people seem to be more interested in conflicts and disaster than in harmony.

I remember in the 70s, books that predicted disasters on Earth because of severe cooling, sold thousands. Turning it right round, in the 90s books that proposed a famine within 20 years because the Earth is getting hotter also sold extensively.

 Now the 20 years have gone and none of the predictions have come to be true and yet millions of people believed because of the written word.

They believed that these predictions were the truth so much so that thousands of billions of dollars were spent on research and documentation.

Neither Jesus Christ nor the Prophet Muhammad ever wrote anything. Other people did the writing. And other people collected the writings rewrote them and put them together long after they were both dead.

In those days very few people could write and the written word didn't quite have the meaning that it has now.

The early recorded writings of the Bible were in Greek. The difficulty in collecting the hundreds of documents and the accuracy of translating them into Greek is obvious. Over hundreds of years it went through the hands of dozens of authors, with countless revisions and additions.

Humanity loves to believe in something, it is a great comfort.

So we acquire some knowledge and then we make it into a belief.

Some say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Humans have only been around for a few million years and are only just beginning to understand the wonders of our planet and our DNA.

The magnificence that is within a single cell is so far from human understanding that it would be ridiculous for man to say he knows the truth about it. And even more preposterous for man to say he understands the intelligence behind its existence or creation.

The intelligence behind our existence and indeed everything else is clearly beyond man's understanding.

To believe in the Almighty wonder and creation of everything around us, surely cannot promote conflict.

When we proposed to know the truth and would fight to the death for this belief that is when human behaviour gets recorded in our history.

If we all realise how little we do know, especially to do with creation, we may stop killing each other as to who is right or wrong.

The money wasted on such conflicts could have given every person in the world a home, healthcare, education, food and comfort for many years.

This is written and very well documented and is a truth.

We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
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