Cat Stevens is coming out of retirement, to record a couple of “anti-war” songs. Of course.

LONDON - Yusuf Islam, formerly known as pop singer Cat Stevens, has recorded two songs to express his opposition to a U.S.-led war on Iraq.

One song is a rerecording of his ‘70s hit “Peace Train.” The other, “Angel of War,” reworks his melancholy love song “Lady D’Arbanville.”

“As a member of humanity and as a Muslim, this is my contribution to the call for a peaceful solution to the dangerous path some world leaders today seem to be taking,” he said in a statement posted on his Web site.

Islam, who was born Stephen Georgiou, took Cat Stevens as a stage name and had a string of hits in the early 1970s. He abandoned his music career in 1977 and changed his name after being persuaded by orthodox Muslim teachers that his lifestyle was forbidden by Islamic law.

Mr. Islam denied reports that if these songs were successful, he was planning to follow up with a new composition titled “Bring Me the Head of Salman Rushdie.”

UPDATE: Mr. “Islam is a Religion of Peace Train” was actually banned from entering Israel after he donated tens of thousands of dollars to Hamas during a 1988 visit—and he tried to do it again in 2000. (Hat tip: dennisw.)

While Middle East peace talks were underway in the U.S., a Jerusalem airport detained and deported Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, alleging that he donated money to a militant Islamic sect on a previous visit.

The Wednesday visit was Islam’s second aborted attempt to gain access to Israel. In 1990, he and his son were barred from the country. The Israeli government claims that on a 1988 visit to Jerusalem, Islam donated tens of thousands of dollars to a violent Islamic group known as the Hamas. …

In other Cat Stevens news, VH1 will air Cat Stevens: Behind the Music … The episode will tap various Stevens producers including Paul Samwell-Smith in addition to interviews with Islam himself. The episode claims to spotlight the “three lives” of the “Seventies superstar singer-songwriter” charting his earliest successes as a musician, his arrival as international star and ultimately his conversion to the Muslim faith, which marked the end of his recording career as Cat Stevens.

“It could help blow away some of those myths and erroneous stories that have circulated for years,” Islam told RollingStone.com last month. “I hope people will finally realize that my life didn’t change as much as it developed, and I always continued to be an artist. I made a choice to actively try to make a difference in the world, just as I wrote and sang about.”

“Myths and erroneous stories” indeed … like the fantasy that this filthy terrorist supporter ever had “peace” in his heart.