Hey, this sounds like Cat Stevens

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Yusuf Islam, the former Cat Stevens, has quietly returned to music. And he's sounding a lot like ... Cat Stevens.

Thirty years after the folk singer converted to Islam, changed his name and dropped out of music, calling it un-Islamic, he has picked up the guitar once more.

He has reconciled pop music with his faith and wants to use it to spread a message of peace.

"When I come out now, I sound quite similar. For some people, it's a welcome return to the sound of my voice and my music," says Islam, who as Cat Stevens sold 60 million albums with songs like "Wild World" and "Peace Train."

Islam said he's trying to make amends for dropping out all those years ago -- and he admits he might have hurt some feelings.

He said his break might not have been as complete had the press been more understanding about his conversion to Islam.

"Now it's the opposite. I don't feel that same hostility. People appreciate that I'm [making music again] for a really good reason: to make peace and try and make people happy."

The 58-year-old spoke in a small Dubai office that doubles as a recording studio and the offices of Jamal Records, a label he co-owns. His salt-and-pepper hair is cropped short and tousled, and he sports a bushy gray-black beard and close-cropped mustache in the style of a pious Muslim.

So far, Islam's comeback has been low-key. A concert airs Sunday on BBC-TV, and he is considering taking part in the Live Earth concert series, to raise awareness about climate change, planned for July.

Late last year, Islam released "An Other Cup," his first pop album since 1977.

Dubai, where the singer lives part of the year (he spends most of his time in his native London), is where Islam's return to music took place after his son bought a guitar in 2002.

"For a long time I had doubts about music. There's a certain point of view among certain schools of thought in Islam that considers music too closely connected to hedonistic tendencies -- you know, sex, drugs and rock and roll," he says.

"But when you take it out of one context and put it in another context, which is connected to healing, spirituality, morality and family values, it's wholesome good stuff," he said. "That's the kind of music the Prophet [Muhammad] encouraged."