Yusuf Islam formerly known as Cat Stevens reflects on his new album, Bosnia, life and Islam (3'38)

Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, is launching a new charity album for Bosnia more than 20 years after he put down his guitar.

The album, I Have No Cannons That Roar, is being launched by the former singer-songwriter two decades after he said music was not compatible with his new found Islamic faith.

The former musician is being joined for the launch by MP and former BBC war correspondent Martin Bell and Muhamed Sacirbey, special envoy to the President of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The new album was inspired by Dr Irfan Ljubijankic, the acting Bosnian foreign minister who was killed in a helicopter attack.

Martin Bell: backing charity record

He had written a song which he recorded and handed to Yusuf in 1995, asking him to use the material to help support his country's struggle.

Bosnian artists feature on the record singing songs from the war period and Islam sings one acapella track on the album.

Cat Stevens was one of the biggest solo artists of the 1960s and 1970s after first making it into the limelight at the age of 19.

He penned songs including Matthew and Son and Moon Shadow.

The singer abandoned music in 1977 when he turned to the Islamic faith after two years in Brazil as a tax exile.

He turned to teaching and founded a Muslim school in 1983. He is involved in the UK Islamic Education Waqf (UKIEW) which raises money to provide education in the UK in keeping with an Islamic way of life.

His only foray into the recording business since has been a spoken word CD of the teachings of the Islamic prophet Mohammed.

But since then he has re-evaluated his views on the music industry, a decision he discussed in an article in the Muslim magazine, Q News.

He wrote: "The issue, I realise now, is certainly not as cut and dried as it seemed when first presented to me in 1977 following the embrace of Islam."
 

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