14. Juni 2016

 

#YouAreNotAlone Charity Concert

(Campaign to help Syrian Refugee Children)

 

 

Charity concert & campaign for refugee children

 

 

"A beautiful converging of hearts for a good cause;

motivational, inspirational and elevating!

Thanks to all that came out tonight in London

in aid of Syrian Refugee Children."

 

 

Yusuf Islam to highlight plight

of child refugees in rare London show

 

 

Singer Yusuf Islam is to headline a rare live concert just yards from the Houses of Parliament, with a new single released to draw attention to the plight of lone child refugees.

 

The charity gig will take place on 14 June at Central Hall Westminster to coincide with the release of the single, He Was Alone. The video for the song follows one refugee boy who loses his family and home, before eventually dying on the road. His grave is marked only with the word walad – meaning boy.

 

Islam said the ballad, his first new music since 2014, was one of the very few he had written which did not have a message of hope. He said: “I am an eternal optimist. Peace Train, Moon Shadow are all optimistic but this might be one of the only songs I have written which has no happy ending.

 

“Because I don’t see any end at the moment. Happiness is what people want to feel [when they listen to music] but if you look over your shoulder, things are happening that ain’t that happy.”

 

Islam said the concert was only arranged because he believed in the cause. “I have agencies saying to me: ‘We can get you so many millions [to do a tour],’ but I am not interested in that. I am more interested in the cause and in bridge-building,” he said.

 

The venue, he said, was symbolic because of its proximity to the Palace of Westminster, “sending a bit of an echo across the road”.

 

The singer-songwriter, formerly known as Cat Stevens, said he had been funding causes to help refugees since last year through charity Small Kindness but felt the need to do something more public. He said: “Songs can’t change the world, no, but they can open up hearts to a more personal story. Artists are people who deal very much with emotions, with the heart. But we need fixers too, because there are a lot of broken hearts out there.”

 

Islam said he felt solidarity with the refugees beyond their common Islamic faith. “Before I was a Muslim, I was a child. Some of the dangers of walking around the city alone, I know it, I know what goes on,” he said. “Regardless of religion, we can relate to it.”

 

The name of the campaign, he said, was inspired by the pope’s visit to Lesbos. “He said: ‘You are not alone’ and that just stuck with me and I wanted to spread that philosophy.”

 

Islam, who recently visited the refugee camps outside Gaziantep in Turkey, said it was clear the country was bearing a huge burden. He said: “There’s a lot of criticism about Turkey and whatever on a political level, but on a humanitarian level, I have got to say it was one of the best camps I’ve ever seen, it would put the NHS to shame to see one of the hospitals there, honestly. So that was encouraging, but obviously people don’t want to stay there forever, they want to go back home. There doesn’t seem to be any end in sight.”

 

Islam said one of the song’s messages was aimed at those who would paint the refugees as would-be Islamist terrorists or economic migrants. “It’s a big misconception, blown out of proportion by certain kinds of politicians who want to make a mark for themselves,” he said. “Of course, there are some economic migrants, there are some people who might want to do us harm, but this is not about those people who might get through the cracks, there are real people suffering, there is no justification for that.”

 

[theguardian.com, 01.06.2016]

 

---

 

 

 

  Yusuf Islam has launched a campaign

 

 

Yusuf Islam harks back

to his Cat Stevens days

to play charity show for Syrian refugees

 

The singer-turned-humanitarian campaigner has written a new song for his charity Small Kindness, which teaches Syrian refugee children in Turkey

 

 

Yusuf Islam, or Cat Stevens as he is probably still better known, is one of Britain’s most famous Muslims.

 

 

The London-born singer-songwriter turned humanitarian campaigner is a compelling mixture of backgrounds which give the Tea for the Tillerman star a distinctive world view of life in the country of his birth.

 

“I’m a Muslim. My father was from Greece and my mother Sweden. I grew up a Cockney, naturally,” says a star who converted to Islam almost 30 years ago.

 

 

“I saw it as a wonderful blending of all my beliefs,” he explains.

 

“You don’t get rid of Jesus when you become a Muslim – you see it in a different way.

 

 

“It was a wonderful bringing together of it all. I went to a Catholic school despite being brought up a Greek Orthodox.

 

 

“It was all the moral teachings. I find it all very clearly in the religion of Islam.”

 

 

He was originally named Steven Demetre Georglou by his parents before switching to Cat Stevens then Yusuf Islam in a remarkable personal journey.

 

Islam was embraced in 1977 after he read the Koran following a brush with death, nearly drowning in the Pacific while swimming off Malibu Beach.

 

 

Yusuf had sold huge numbers of records, his songs such as Wild World and Father & Son later also becoming massive hits for Jimmy Cliff and Boyzone , before he sensationally quit the music industry.

 

 

Returning a decade ago, he uses performing to combat the demonisation of Muslims by extremists outside and within his faith.

 

Reactionary property billionaire Donald Trump , knocking on the door of the White House in the US, makes Yusuf shudder.

 

Trump’s racist threat to ban Muslims going to the US struck a chilling chord with a performer who 12 years ago was disgracefully denied entry to America after Yusuf - who had repeatedly denounced terrorism – was unfairly accused of funding the very people he attacked.

 

 

Yet he remains optimistic that voters that side of the Atlantic will reject fear in favour of hope when they cast their votes later this year.

 

 

“There’s a new word,” he says with a slight sneer. “It’s Trumpism. But like most Hollywood films I’m hopeful that when we get to the end it will be OK... Armageddon will be delayed for a sequel.”

 

He draws a parallel between the USA and Austria where the Far Right anti-migrant Freedom Party’s Norbert Hofer last month failed to take a Presidency the hardliner’s believed was theirs.

 

 

“There was this awful feeling before the result was released then you get this tipping point where we came back,” he says.

 

“There’s a growing divide and that’s being heightened and unfairly manipulated by people to get their name high up on the ballot paper and in opinion polls.”

 

To understand the frightening rise in hostility to Muslims across Europe and in Britain he ties to quote an early 19th Century German philosopher.

 

 

“Islamaphobia is just a new name for ‘the other’. There was a great saying by Hegel, I can’t remember the exact wording, that it’s only when facing the other you get to find your own identity,” Yusuf says.

 

“It’s like that. People are using the fear card to drive up their popularity but in the end you are talking about human beings.”

 

He finds hope that ordinary people won’t be swayed by the scaremongering of unscrupulous politicians in the election of Sadiq Khan as London Mayor.

 

 

Labour’s candidate triumphed despite a racially charged Tory smear operation falsely painting him as an extremist and threat to security.

 

 

“I think that was brilliant,” says Yusuf. “I hope he will be really good, we have great expectations. People saw past the racism kind of stuff so it was great, it’s wonderful.”

 

 

And after predicting Khan will be a fabulous mayor, he adds with a little laugh: “Don’t blame Islam if he isn’t!”

 

 

Yusuf puts his money where his mouth is as a humanitarian worker and funds a charity, Small Kindness , teaching Syrian refugee children in Turkey.

 

 

“The Peace Train is still rolling,” he remarks in a reference to his anti-war song, written when the USA was embroiled in a bloody conflict in Vietnam.

 

Recently returned from a visit to Gaziantep refugee camp in Turkey close to the border with Syria, he’s written and recorded a song He Was Alone about a boy who lost his family.

 

 

All the profits will help refugees as will money raised by a charity gig on Tuesday, 14 June in London’s Central Hall.

 

 

The You Are Not Alone campaign’s immediate goal is to raise enough cash so Small Kindness and other groups can assist 10,000 refugee children who find themselves on their own, fending for themselves.

 

 

The cause is attracting the support of celebrities from Ricky Gervais and Emma Thompson to Ben Elton and Omid Djalili, but Stevens is a great believer in the power of ordinary people.

 

 

He’s dismayed that refugees fleeing for their lives and economic migrants seeking a better life are deliberately confused by politicians ahead of this month’s referendum on Britain remaining in Europe.

 

“I think what’s happening here is an unfortunate entanglement with a human issue and a political one which has been worrying so many people’s lives for a long time,” he says.

 

“Britain has always been standing on the edge, wondering whether we should belong to the Continent or not.”

 

 

Asked how he’ll vote, Yusuf replies sheepishly that he’s unsure whether he’s any longer registered.

 

 

“I don’t really, to be honest. I’m not really a voter. I do things personally. I don’t even know if I’m allowed to vote, to be honest,” he admits.

 

 

He quotes George Bernard Shaw’s remark that the best religions can have the worst followers to denounce the Islamic State’s murderous butchers.

 

But there is an undeniable optimism about Yusuf. The killing continues in Syria’s brutal civil war and peace talks are making little progress but he looks for hopeful signs.

 

 

“Look at the South African model, a prime model of what can happen,” he says approvingly of that country’s transition to democracy from apartheid without the feared bloodbath.

 

 

In Gaziantep he found kindness and generosity as Turkey hosts Syrians escaping the fighting.

 

 

“Most of the refugees in that area are absorbed into homes and houses. It’s an amazing story,” he insists.

 

“There are about 300,000 in the area. There’s a lot going on there which was very heartwarming. When it came to meeting the families and kids you cannot stop them smiling.

 

 

“They make the best of it. Homesick, they just want to go home. They remember what it was like, playing in the street without guns and bombs falling on them.

 

 

“Some have lost their parents and brothers and sisters who have been killed in front of their eyes. They try to push it to the back of their minds.

 

 

“Hardly anything is left of those towns, the most beautiful Middle East archetypal towns made of sandstone. It will change. It’s just mammoth but the human being has the ability to rebuild, a symbol of what I’m doing.”

 

 

The Small Kindness charity is his way of proving people can make a difference.

 

 

“If you really that governments are going to sort out the problems it will never happen. It has to happen on the ground,” he says.

 

“It’s up to the people on the ground. I know what it’s like to live on a road where you don’t know who lives next to you.”

 

 

And he maintains a deep belief in the power of music to transform lives.

 

 

“I think music has an amazing ability to open people’s hearts,” he says.

 

“For me music is a great crossroads where we can all meet.”

 

[mirror.co.uk, 02.06.2016]

 

 

Cat Stevens launches a campaign

for Child Refugees

 

 

Legendary singer/songwriter Yusuf / Cat Stevens today launches a campaign to help child refugees in Europe with a charity gig on 14th June at London’s Central Hall, Westminster, and the release of a unique single, He Was Alone.

Yusuf’s charity, Small Kindness is partnering with charities Save the Children and Penny Appeal to raise funds to help people who have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe in search of safety. More than 1 million people arrived on European shores in 2015, including 95,000 children who were registered as travelling alone without their parents to care for them.

"While the world faces incomprehensible numbers and statistics created by the refugee crisis the tragedy and story of a single soul gets missed. It was difficult to stand by just watching this tragedy without trying to do something. I simply decided to help humanize the narrative and lend my voice to the call for keeping hearts and doors open to every refugee, especially youngsters, who have lost what future they might have once hoped for," says Yusuf / Cat Stevens.

Many of the children who have risked everything to reach Europe know nothing more than conflict, violence and forced displacement. Their current deplorable conditions offer little hope for their futures as they waste the best years of their lives in refugee camps, detention centres and behind border fences and walls. As a result, refugee children are five times less likely to attend school than other children in the countries in which they are displaced, so Save the Children is calling for international governments to commit to ensuring that no child refugee is out of school for more than a month.

The support for this cause has also been strengthened by a growing list of celebrities and stars, including Ricky Gervais, Steve McQueen, Naomi Campbell, Emma Thompson, Pete Townsend, Bob Geldof, Gary Kemp, Naomie Harris, Ben Elton, Kim Kardashian West, Khloe Kardashian, Blondie, Jude Law, New Order, Eliza Doolittle, Ronan Keating, Sheryl Crow, Omid Djalili, Queen and Miley Cyrus’ Happy Hippie Foundation. [...]

 

[music-news.com, 03.06.2016]

 

 

 

Yusuf Islam releases new single,

plans charity show for child refugees

 

 

Yusuf Islam, the British musician formerly known as Cat Stevens, released a new single on Wednesday and is scheduled to perform a London charity concert in support of Syrian child refugees later this month.

 

"It was difficult to stand by just watching this tragedy without trying to do something," the musician said on the website of his charity, Small Kindness.

 

"I simply decided to help humanise the narrative and lend my voice to the call for keeping hearts and doors open to every refugee, especially youngsters, who have lost what future they might have once hoped for,” he said.

 

“While the world faces incomprehensible numbers and statistics created by the refugee crisis, the tragedy and story of a single soul gets missed."

 

The artist was inspired to write his new single, "He Was Alone," after visiting refugees in a camp on the Turkish border with Syria in April, the Evening Standard reported.

 

 

 

Yusuf Islam: Some will associate

Orlando with Islam - that's criminal

 

I am here to talk to Yusuf Islam, the Muslim singer and humanitarian formerly known as Sixties icon Cat Stevens, about his charity concert for child refugees at Westminster’s Central Hall tonight.

 

But the mass shooting at Florida gay club Pulse by an alleged Islamic State terrorist has overtaken us. “This guy is demented, a distortion, and it is detestable and horrendous, but it does not reflect Islam,” says Yusuf, 67, who looks like a benign if nattily dressed cleric. 

 

“Yes, some people will try and associate this incident with Islam as a whole — Donald Trump, probably — and that’s criminal.

 

You wouldn’t blame the whole of Britain for those football hooligans who have gone to Marseille.”

 

He sounds slightly exasperated, once again compelled to defend the faith he embraced in 1977 after almost drowing off Malibu.

 

But with Orlando gunman Omar Mateen’s father stating that homosexuals should be “punished by God”, and fears of an attack at London’s own Pride celebrations, I wonder if Yusuf will express solidarity with the gay community when he gets on stage tonight. 

 

“I don’t think I need to,” he says. “That’s the problem with tagging these things with ‘Islam’. The most important thing Islam preserves is the privacy of one’s sexual activity.

 

It’s up to you how you behave behind closed doors or in the privacy of your own bedroom. We are here for a humanitarian cause and we don’t want to dis-focus from the issue, which is the lone refugee.”

 

Of the estimated five million people displaced by the murder spree of IS, the war in Syria and unrest in Iraq and Afghanistan, one million have sought refuge in Europe, and 95,000 of those are children travelling alone.

 

It is these children, who may have experienced nothing but conflict, and who may never know a stable home or school life, that Yusuf wants to help. 

 

So through his charity Small Kindness he has hooked up with Save the Children and Penny Appeal to highlight their plight. He has recorded a new song, He Was Alone, created the campaign hashtag #YouAreNotAlone, and arranged the gig.

 

The disparate likes of Ricky Gervais, Steve McQueen, Naomi Campbell, Emma Thompson, several Kardashians, New Order, Queen and Miley Cyrus’s Happy Hippie Foundation have all pledged support. 

 

The idea “came out of just watching the news on a daily basis: seeing the tragedy unfolding, refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean, trying to get to safer lands”, says Yusuf (I’ll call him that to avoid confusion).

 

“All the deaths, and the numbers, were boggling. You couldn’t really make sense of it. Each one of these refugees is a human being and has their own story.

 

So I wanted to raise the issue of the individual, the single soul, and the children represent that the best because of their innocence and the fact they have nothing to do with this horrible war.”

 

Although the plight of Syria feels most pressing and intractable, his appeal is aimed at all child refugees. “There are lots of people who are still trying to leave Afghanistan,” he says. “Boy, don’t they have it bad.”

 

He feels there has been a failure of humanity in the UK, with the tragedy reduced to “quotas and numbers” and the issue “muddied” by association with the debate about intra-EU immigration around the referendum, and the red herring of minuscule numbers of Middle Eastern economic migrants.

 

“I agree you want to differentiate between those who are trying to maximise [their situation] economically and those who are actually seeking a place of refuge, who are the majority,” he says. “But be more humane in your attitude.” 

 

He visited a “brilliant, well-run” refugee camp in Turkey at the same time as Angela Merkel. “Germany has an open door and she is suffering a bit politically for that perhaps, but all good to her,” he says. “There is no quick fix. It needs perspective, humanity and people to put their hearts in the right place. But you know, God has made this earth bountiful, you just have to work a little bit at it. There is enough room for everybody.”

 

Yusuf has flown into the capital direct from Muhammad Ali’s funeral. “He was the epitome of the kind of role model I aspire to be — someone who crosses all boundaries, just so wonderful in his love of humanity and his charity work.

 

We met two or three times and he showed me a couple of tricks. He was a real joker in many respects. He showed me how to levitate, and probably broke all the magicians’ rules by doing so.

 

I was one of the pallbearers for the Islamic funeral part of the ceremony. That was a great honour.”

 

[standard.co.uk, 14.06.2016]

 

 

Yusuf/Cat Stevens tour review:

Given the reason for the event,

this was no party