Peace honour for singer Islam

Singer Cat Stevens is to receive a Man for Peace award from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

The musician, who two months ago was refused entry to the US on “national security grounds”, will accept the honour at a ceremony in Rome tomorrow.

The Gorbachev Foundation, which gives the award annually, said it was “for his dedication to promote peace, the reconciliation of people and to condemn terrorism”.

The singer converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam in the 1970s.

Past winners of the award, now in its third year, include Italian actor-director Roberto Benigni.

A spokeswoman for the Foundation said Stevens was being honoured for his work as the chairman of charity Small Kindness to alleviate the suffering of thousands of children and their parents in countries including Kosovo, Bosnia and Iraq.

He was one the most important international musicians of the 1970s, she added.

Stevens, 56, had a string of hits in the 1960s and 1970s including Wild World and Morning Has Broken.

Last year he released two songs, including a re-recording of his 1970s hit Peace Train, to express his opposition to the war in Iraq.

He abandoned his music career in the late 1970s and changed his name after being persuaded by orthodox Muslim teachers that his lifestyle was forbidden by Islamic law.

He later became a teacher and an advocate for his religion, founding a Muslim school in London in 1983.

Stevens was detained and questioned by the FBI in September after his Washington-bound flight was diverted.

He will receive his award as part of the 5th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates at Rome’s Campidoglio.