POP/ROCK - Feb. 24, 1989

Pop singer Cat Stevens has backed the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death threat against author Salman Rushdie saying: “The Koran makes it clear: If someone defames the prophet, then he must die.” Stevens, who became a strict Moslem and changed his name to Yusuf Islam in 1977, also called on Rushdie to stop publication of “The Satanic Verses” and to consider buying back copies of it. “Under Islam, if a man has done someone ill, he must make amends,” Stevens told a meeting of Moslem students in Surrey, southern England on Wednesday. “He must ask his publishers to get back his books, and if necessary he must spend every penny he has to get them all.” Stevens’ Top 10 hits have included the 1971 release “Peace Train.”