He was in town recently to chair an education workshop and took time out to talk to Claire High The saying goes that a cat has nine lives. So it is strangely appropriate that the man formerly known as Cat Stevens has reinvented himself so many times in his 54 years. From Catholic school boy, to international pop star to Islamic convert and educationalist - it has been a long journey for the man who now prefers to be known as Yusuf Islam.

Born Steven Demetre Georgiou in London in 1948 to a Swedish mother and Greek Cypriot father, his early life was spent helping out in the family restaurant in London's West End and attending a nearby Catholic school.

By 18 he'd changed his name to Cat Stevens and recorded his first single "I Love My Dog". It was 1966 and a four piece band from Liverpool, The Beatles, dominated the pop charts worldwide and London was the centre of the 'swinging sixties'- it was also the year Stevens became a bona fide pop star.

But within a year his wild lifestyle caused a near fatal illness. "I lost control," he admits in his online autobiography, "Staying up late, drinking, partying, smoking endless cigarettes - I fell sick and contracted Tuberculosis. Within a year I found myself in hospital lying on my back. The pop business was whizzing past me and I was left there thinking: what happened?"

What happened was that Cat Stevens reassessed his life so far and returned to the music industry after a year's convalescence as a very different kind of performer and with a drastically changed musical style. Gone were the clean-cut boyish good looks of the 60s pop star. Stevens had a new, more mature image. He grew a beard and left his pop leanings behind him to produce a more reflective and personalised style of folk music which captured the imagination of the record buying public.

During the 70s Stevens reigned supreme producing a string of hit albums and singles such as Father and Son, Morning Has Broken and Wild World. He sold over 25 million LPs worldwide but this was no longer enough for the man whose brush with death as a teenager had, in his own words, made him "aware of my own mortality and the inevitability of death."

Whilst continuing to produce albums throughout the decade, the former Catholic school boy was also exploring different world religions and ancient philosophies, in an effort to discover his own identity and place in the world.

Then in 1976 he received a birthday present from his elder brother David that was to transform his life again. It was an English translation of the Qu'ran, the holy book of the Islamic faith. It took the singer a year to read the book and at the end of that year he knew he had found his personal path: "I realised there was nothing for me to do but to be a muslim and that was my next step."

So on a wintry, December day in 1977 Cat Stevens walked into a mosque in Regents Park in London and made his testimony of faith and walked out as Yusuf Islam. In 1978 he performed what he said would be his last concert and produced his last pop album, The Back To Earth LP. And shortly afterwards turned his back on the music industry altogether.

"Today, people still reflect on an image they want to see, but Cat Stevens was never really there," he has written since of his momentous decision to walk away from a lifestyle that brought him fame and wealth.

Since embracing Islam, the former pop star has become a leading and active member of the muslim community in Britain and is principally involved in two areas: education for Muslim children and humanitarian relief work. He is also the chairman of four charity organizations and is the director of several private companies.

Since 1993 Yusuf Islam turned his attention to work in the recording studio once more resulting in the release of The Life of the Last Prophet (peace be upon him), a spoken word production which was designed for the muslim and non-muslim public. This was his first official release for almost twenty years and was released on the Mountain of Light record label. He also performed live for the first time in 20 years at a concert in Sarajevo in 1997 to celebrate Bosnian culture.

Islam's Mountain of Light company is now based in Dubai and he is a frequent visitor to the city. "I have been coming to the region quite often and have now opened an office at Dubai Media City for my multi-media company. We produce tapes and CDs for the muslim family market," he explained.

Why Dubai? "It has all the technical facilities that you need and a lot of added perks for me. For instance Friday is a day off over here which is great for me because since I embraced Islam in 1977 I have been living in the UK and never experienced that,"he says, adding, "The UAE is an interesting model of an open society - which is very cosmopolitan and with an inclusive approach but with strong Islamic values."

However, when STARS met with Islam in Dubai recently, he was here in his incarnation as Chairman of IBERR (a support and networking group for Islamic educationalists) to conduct a workshop with other leading Islamic educationalists to accelerate the launch of a new model Islamic Education Syllabus.

"Today many people are very interested in looking at what has been going on in Muslim schools. We believe we have been misrepresented after what has happened in the past year since September 11. It is more important than ever therefore that our syllabus meets the challenge of today's world while still imparting Islamic values," he explains of his mission in Dubai.

Education has been a subject close to the former musicians heart since 1977 when he attended the first World Conference on Islamic education in Saudi Arabia. A father of five himself, he was inspired by the conference to establish, along with other concerned muslim parents, the Islamia Schools' Trust in UK in 1982 - to provide Islamic schooling for children in England.

The vision came to life in 1983 with the opening of the Islamia Primary School in North West London and later in 1989 the Islamia Girls School. "I was inspired by the first World Conference on Islamic Education and we started our own school in 1983 and have been in the top range of exam schedules for many years," he says proudly.
It is almost one year exactly since the attacks of Sept 11 rocked the world and caused a backlash against Islam throughout the West. I asked him how this has affected the muslim schools he's involved with in UK?

"We had a lot of reflection on how much we should explain to our students about what happened last year. There has been a real problem in communicating the mainstream voice of Islam in the media and around the world since then. I believe that there is a growing swell of middle opinion in the world - but you will always have extremes of opinion outside of that.
"But the more people learn about this faith the better - and miraculously that seems to have been one positive that has happened since September 11."

Some critics would say that having separate Islamic schools in Britain may actually encourage segregation and an anti-Islamic feeling against the British muslim community. How does he respond to such critics? "The word 'segregated' education is not really appropriate. Like any other school, Islamic schools teach a set of values. Every individual has the right to freedom of choice and every parent has the right to educate their child in one philosophy."
Another major part of what they aim to achieve in the schools is a more positive image of Islam in an increasingly hostile political climate. "I believe that Islam has a rich contribution to make to the world," he says, adding, "at the schools we aim to delve into the richness and sources of Islam and create all the components for a tolerant society."

In today's current political climate it seems that he has his work cut out for him. Since September last year tolerance is not high on the agenda for some of the worlds leading statesman. But this is a man who has touched the hearts of millions with his words and music and you sense that he will not give up on his cause.