Yusuf Islam - the singer formally known as Cat Stevens - today recognised
substantial unrevealed libel indemnification over a claim that he was a male chauvinist
bigot wHO refused to speak to any women not wearing a veil.
The Muslim singer-songwriter's solicitor, Adam Tudor, told Mr Justice Eady at
London's High Court that the allegations, which appeared in March last year,
were entirely delusive .
"Mr Islam has never had whatsoever difficulties working with women, whether for
religious or any other reasons.
"In his normal life, women feature among some of the most influential people
in Mr Islam's squad."
Mr Tudor said that the article was distributed by the agency World
Entertainment News Network (WENN) to subscribers, including the website
Contactmusic.com, which boats 2.2 million page views a month.
It suggested that Mr Islam was so sexist and bigoted that he refused at an
awards ceremony to speak to - or fifty-fifty acknowledge - any women who were not
wearing a humeral veil.
It also suggested that his manager had stated: "Mr Islam doesn't talk with
women except his wife. Least of all if they don't endure a headscarf. Things
like that only happen via an intercessor."
Mr Tudor said this statement was simply never made.
"Unsurprisingly, the article caused Mr Islam considerable embarrassment and
distress, peculiarly given that it had the burden not only of creating an
utterly false effect of his attitude to women, merely because it cast
serious aspersions, quite a wrongly, on his religious faith, which is a matter
of the extreme importance to him."
He said that WENN and Contactmusic.com Ltd had already published apologies and
had agreed to pay solid damages - which were to be donated to the
charity Small Kindness - and Mr Islam's legal costs.
Mr Islam was not in royal court.
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