Stewart said that he didn't know about Yusuf's comments at the time. "So I’m like, I'm sure he doesn't believe that people should be put to death for apostasy,” Stewart recalled. "I said, 'look, I'm sorry you’re upset, but I'm sure the guy isn't really like that. Let me talk to him.”
Stewart called Yusuf, who characterized backing the fatwa as a "misunderstanding," but immediately tempered that with "although why do you have to insult the Prophet?"
"We get into a whole conversation, and it becomes very clear to me that he is straddling two worlds in a very difficult way. And that he actually still – and it broke my heart a little bit. I wish I had known that. I wouldn't have done [the bit], I don’t think. If I had known that, I wouldn't have done it. Because that to me is a deal breaker. Death for free speech is a deal breaker," Stewart said.
Colbert added that at the time, Yusuf was scheduled to be a guest on upcoming episodes of both the Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Those appearances didn't happen.I wonder if anyone on Craig Kilborn's "Daily Show" staff knew about Yusuf's 1989 comments.
Labels: television