Sinead O’Connor announces conversion to Islam in video, changing her name to Shuhada’ Davitt
She called it 'the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey'
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Your support makes all the difference.Irish popstar Sinéad O’Connor – who shot to fame in 1990 for her version of “Nothing Compares 2 U” – has converted to Islam.
The singer revealed the news on Twitter, adding she has changed her name to Shuhada’ Davitt.
The 51-year-old said the decision to convert to Islam was the “the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey”.
“All scripture study leads to Islam,” she said. “Which makes all other scriptures redundant. I will be given (another) new name. It will be Shuhada’.”
O’Connor then posted a selfie of herself wearing a hijab in front of a board with a message reading: “You have taken my body, you have taken my mind, you have taken my children, but you will never take my voice.”
In a video posted to the social media platform, Davitt sang the Azan – the Islamic call to prayer – later apologising for any pronunciation mistakes.
“Thank you so much to all my Muslim brothers and sisters who have been so kind as to welcome me to Ummah [community] today on this page,” she wrote, following the initial messages. “You can’t begin to imagine how much your tenderness means to me.”
Davitt has courted controversy throughout her career, as an outspoken critic of the Catholic church, but also has history of mental health issues. In June 2016, she dismissed reports she was missing and had threatened to jump off a bridge, labelling the claim “false and malicious gossip”.
In December 2015, she wrote on Facebook she had been detained in hospital for a mental health evaluation.
A month earlier, she wrote another Facebook post, claiming she had overdosed on pills in a hotel room in Ireland. She was later found safe and taken to hospital.
O’Connor was ordained as a priest in 1999 by a Catholic group not connected to the Roman Catholic Church.
She ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II during a Saturday Night Live appearance in 1992.
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