Given the vagaries of her behavior, I suppose it’s not surprising that erstwhile singer Sinéad O’Connor has become a Muslim, taking the new name Shuhada’ Davitt. (The name on her Wikipedia entry has already been changed.)
https://twitter.com/MagdaDavitt77/status/1053340513871384576
https://twitter.com/MagdaDavitt77/status/1054765174706585600
She has since documented her new faith, writing that she was “very, very, very happy” after being given her first hijab, and expressing thanks to “all my Muslim brothers and sisters who have been so kind as to welcome me to Ummah”, meaning the Islamic community. She also posted a YouTube video of her making the Islamic call to prayer
Her full new name is Shuhada’ Davitt, using the surname she gave herself when she changed her name to Magda Davitt in 2017. She said at the time that she wanted to be “free of the patriarchal slave names. Free of the parental curses.”
It was 26 years ago that O’Connor caused a huge fracas by ripping up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live in protest of the Catholic Church’s psychological and sexual abuse of children. It’s ironic, then, that’s she’s adopted this new faith, whose “theologians” and ayatollahs condone many of the same practices. And talking about patriarchal slaves. . . .
Here’s her live act of defiance back in 1992, which was brave. Today, well. . . she’s been through a lot.
Its her decision of course, I hope shes happy in her new subservient Role.
Uh, is she aware that she has just volunteered for a lifetime sentence? Apostates in Islam are sentenced to death, so if she changes her mind and renounces Islam, she will be a target for the rest of her life.
That thought crossed my mind too. Given the rate at which she burns through identities I suspect she’ll tire of this one too before too long.
Maybe she is using it as an opportunity to build up an audience to rip the Koran to pieces on TV.
The seriousness of apostasy in Islam normally applies to people born as Muslims.
It’s life sentence if you get in through an accident of birth but choosing it consciously makes the connection weaker.
No one is born muslim .same goes for christians .
Indeed, this is well worth reminding people of.
Believing Muslims say that every child is born Muslim; hence, they call converting to Islam “reverting”.
Has she indicated where she stands on the Fatwa against Salman Rushdie? As I recall one of the first things Yusuf “Cat” Islam did after converting was to express his agreement.
What thought process could actually convince any rational adult that the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mohammed in a cave, told Mohammed he was god’s best and final prophet, and then proceeded to dictate the Koran?
So let me get this straight. God has this incredibly important message to convey to mankind, the most important message they will ever hear, namely, the fact that he (she?) exists and that there are certain rules that mankind must follow. So god thinks to himself “What is the absolute, very best way that I can communicate this all-important message to mankind? I know! I’m kinda busy, so I’ll just pick some random guy (Moses/Mohammed/Joseph Smith/or ???) and have HIM tell everyone!”
Brilliant. Just freakin’ brilliant.
Not to mention the fact that to truly understand this all-important message in its pure form, you have to read it in the original language – God can only make himself clear in 7th century Arabic, it would seem.
Well ,if English was good enough for jesus .
😎
When I was a kid, being indoctrinated (which was a half hearted attempt and didn’t work btw), I remember thinking “How convenient all those people in the Bible spoke [a funny sort of] English”. I must have been quite young at the time.
cr
The Koran refers to itself being revealed in Arabic. The Gospels do not specify the language, except that it wasn’t Aramaic.
I think the point where your assumption went off track was the word “rational”.
Yes, I almost pointed that out in my original comment.
Yes, just freakin’ brilliant. If Marx had just been smart [and dishonest or deranged] enough to declare his Manifesto a revelation from God, the whole world could be communist by now.
LOL. Probably not the whole world, but some sizable portion of it, like Utah, where another man also proposed similar manifestos from God.
It just seems bizarre that someone famous for railing against the misogyny and patriarchy of the Roman Catholic church has now signed up to the most misogynistic, patriarchal religion of all. From observing examples of westerners who convert to Islam I’ve often felt that many of them are mentally unstable, if not actually mentally ill. Given her past history, O’Connor/Davitt does nothing to contradict that impression.
Indeed. It does look like she’s returned to where she came from, in spades.
I had a friend in University that used to go to school with Sinead in the early 1980’s. It was a secondary school for ‘troubled’ teenagers that was overseen by the same religious order that ran the notorious Magdalene laundries. He said that she didn’t really stand out from the rest of the class at the time.
While she undoubtedly had a lot of talent it is very sad to see the toll that mental illness has taken on Sinead O’Connor’s life.
Joining a religion a symptom of mental illness. Sounds about right.
“She said at the time that she wanted to be “free of the patriarchal slave names.”
Isn’t she aware that the Arabs were the key to the European then American/ West Indian slave trade?
Always bewildered by the movement by American Blacks to switch from Christianity (SLAVE TRADE) to Muslim. Apparently they don’t read history.
Indeed.
Right, in order to show your objection to the sub-saharan african slave trade you are renouncing the religion of the people who ended it and are adopting the religion of the people who started it? Really??
I don’t think the Nation of Islam has much of a connection to the mainstream Muslim ideologies. It certainly didn’t when it was founded by Wallace Fard and Elijah Muhammad back in the 1930s. It was essentially a black nationalist movement that adopted some of the trappings of Islam for structural and organizational purposes — analogous to the the way the Viet Minh was a Vietnamese nationalist movement rather than a part of mainstream Communism, but adopted the trappings of Marxism for structural and organizational purposes.
However, once you subscribe to such an ideology for practical purposes, there is no easy way to shake it off.
Yes, especially when the punishment for doing so is death.
The many ex-muslims and ex-christians in the world are evidence to the contrary. Indeed, most of us atheists are former members of “such an ideology” of one sort or another.
He had indicated that it’s not “easy”, which is true, especially in many parts of the world (like Pakistan) where coming out as an atheist will for sure have a deleterious effect on your life-span.
Aaargh nononononononononononononono
She’s had some issues recently and was clearly having periods of irrationality before this. No I don’t mean the SNL incident. So sad to see her like this.
/virtualhug
I’ll be waiting for the Sinead O’Connor/Cat Stevens upcoming world wide tour, excluding Muslim majority countries of course.
Per her tweet, there’s no such thing as an “intelligent theologian”.
Exactly, another oxymoron.
This annoyed me. I understand that a troubled individual may find solace in a strict religion, but she essentially said that everyone who thinks of uneatable things and does not convert to Islam is stupid.
“Here’s her live act of defiance back in 1992, which was brave.”
Not sure how “brave” that was in front of adoring fans.
Anyway the poor girl is seriously mentally ill.
Imagine how dangerous a combination of schizophrenia with jihad can be.
Is there some basis for claiming she suffers from schizophrenia — or that she’s a jihadist? My understanding is she suffers from bipolar disorder.
” or that she’s a jihadist? ”
No, I was just pondering what affect jihadist ideology in Islam can have on a serious mentally ill patient – especially a paranoid schizophrenic. (She probably is not)
“Is there some basis for claiming she suffers from schizophrenia”
No, an irresponsible claim from me.
My subjective opinion is that she suffers from the shizoaffective disorder (mix between bipolar and schizophrenic traits)
The media did report she suffers from bipolar but I think she has some schizophrenic traits. (just my subjective opinion, but I did study psychology)
I find the uniform a bit disturbing
Lotta people found Beyoncé’s costume at the Super Bowl disturbing, too. I think it’s a mistake to read too much into performers’ playing dress-up.
It is pretty ironic though. Wearing military style camo while singing the call to prayer for converting to Islam. Sounds almost like a Monty Python sketch.
Wow, Trump’d kill to have hands like that.
Hi Diane, seems to me we could be having a dicussion about migrating birds and someone will make a reference to Trump!
Bipolar disorder also is no picnic. I know people suffering of it.
You’re kidding, right? Of course it was brave. She destroyed her career for awhile, and she’s from freaking Ireland, where she had a huge fan base. Do you understand the implications of that? Not to mention the media shitstorm that descended upon her.
By the way, those “adoring” fans in the audience? (1)Usually, those are just people who happened to get their SNL tickets for that night, and (2) if you watch the clip above, there was complete silence in the studio after she did it.
From Wikipedia: “As part of SNL’s apology to the audience, during his opening monologue the following week, host Joe Pesci held up the photo, explaining that he had taped it back together—to huge applause.”
And, as Ken said, I’d like to see your evidence that she is schizophrenic.
“You’re kidding, right? Of course it was brave. ”
Ok I accept your scolding, I was far too cynical.
No, it wasn’t “brave” in any way, shape or form. You could tear up a photo of the pope in front of St. Peter’s in Rome and nothing would happen to you. Same for tearing up Queen Elizabeth outside Buckingham Palace, or the US President (of your choice) outside the White House.
Try tearing up a photo of Kim Jong-Un in the middle of Pyongyang, or one of the Ayatollah Khomeini outside the Iranian parliament – now that would be brave.
I agree that there are degrees of bravery, and this one doesn’t compare to the two you mentioned, but it was surely going to damage her career, which it did.
Tearing up a picture of Muhammad would be brave. I suppose just having one would be brave, for that matter.
Since we’re not supposed to have pictures of Mohammad, is there an accepted procedure for disposing of one? Say someone sends such a picture to a devout Muslim. What do they do? If they destroy it, surely that could be taken as desecration. If they turn it into the local imam, it might be hard to explain. Makes me glad not to be a believer.
Perhaps the procedure for proper disposal of Korans could be followed (I know that such a procedure exists, though not the procedure itself).
Sure, you could say she wasn’t “as brave as someone tearing up a picture of Kim Jong-Un in the middle of Pyongyang,” but is that the standard? Is the rule you’re proposing that anything that has repercussions less than torture and death cannot be counted as brave? That appears to be the logical conclusion from your comment.
I apologize for using that tone. I sometimes don’t think before I type and hit “Post Comment.” When I vehemently disagree with someone, I should take a few minutes to think about how I’m replying and only then post the comment. I’ll try to do better in the future.
Oh, boy, I’m savin’ that snippet for later use, BJ. 🙂
I didn’t say that. I was hacked!
“I apologize for using that tone. ”
Thanks, but I did not take offence, you made valid points
“I’d like to see your evidence that she is schizophrenic.”
I expressed myself poorly.
Allthough I think she might be shizoaffective I was just making a general point:
Imagine a paranoid schizophrenic being immersed in islamic jihad theology.
Hopefully she is exposed to Sufi islam.
Well, regardless, my tone was not how one should conduct a civil debate, and you deserved an apology.
I imagine the Islam she’s exposed to is the general “religion of peace” Islam. I imagine it’s not much of Islam at all. I don’t mean to say that there aren’t many millions of peaceful Muslims, but that she probably doesn’t have much of a grasp on Islam as a religion at all. My guess is that this is more of a thing she’s doing because it “just feels right.”
How about Bod Islam?
That’s my kinda slam.
^^^bad humor
I had a look at her twitter page:
https://twitter.com/MagdaDavitt77
She references this site: https://www.newmuslims.com
appears to be Sunni 🙁
Oy gevalt!
OMG, she is starting to look like Mother Teresa.
with tattoos!
For all we know, Teresa of Calcutta mighta been inked-up, too. Never heard of anybody copping a peek under her habit, did you? 🙂
Jesus Ken. Can you imagine the tattoos that someone as disturbed as MT might have had? How terrifying.
Can you imagine anybody ever wanting to? ‘cos I can’t. 🙂
cr
Hope she doesn’t change her mind again.
Hope she doesn’t change her mind again.
“This is to announce that I am proud to have become an idiot. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent person seeing me in my hijab. All scripture study leads to lunacy. Which makes all scriptures complete bullshit. I will be given (another) new name. It will be Fucking Moron.”
There, fixed it for you Sinead.
+1
It makes me sad though. I really, really liked her tearing up the picture of the pope. How is it that she doesn’t realize what a ridiculous move this is? Unbalanced is the only answer.
Unfortunately she is self-absorbed AND a public figure – she feels the need to broadcast all the twists & turns in her opinions on all subjects – she absolutely needs to tell us strangers about her shit upbringing – she uses her celebrity in a scattershot way because she has no trustworthy, genuine friends [that I can see] to hold her hand & normalise her.
That said, her public demonstrations about the criminal religious organisation that ruined her & her TV interviews about her suicidal impulses have been a net benefit to the world, but this shift to Islam looks to me like someone has their hooks into her – manipulating her insecurities. A lonely person such as her will go overboard in response to a listening ear & kindness. That’s why Islam picks up new recruits in the wast from our prisons & bail hostels where people are to be found at their lowest.
Yes, that is probably true, that someone has their hooks into her. A port in a lonely storm. Too bad she doesn’t just take her medication (there are some that really work well for depression) instead of selling her soul to the devil. In a manner of speaking.
And Islam of all fucking things! Someone should have guided her towards Buddhism. So she could meditate and practice mindfulness instead of degrading herself as woman. It’s beyond me.
+ 2
If a Muslim woman shaves her head, is she still “given the choice” by a male to cover her body? Now we know.
In other news, Sinead O’Connor used to perform world renowned music.
As has been remarked on above, for years she has had serious bouts of mental illness. She was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. She’s been was suicidal. Last year her desperation drove her to stay in a Travelodge Motel in “the arse end of New Jersey,” as she describes it, where she made an anguished video talking about her mental illness in hopes that it might help others as well as herself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buhNEl3LTRo. I think that took real courage to expose herself like that.
I applauded her ripping up the pope’s photo.
I used to have fun ridiculing her contradictions and excesses, but that was before I learned how sick she was. Unfortunate that she thinks Islam, or any religion will save her from her psychological demons, but it’s understandable. I still applaud her ripping up the pope’s photo.
Praying is like a rocking chair; it’ll give you something to do, but won’t get you anywhere.
Gypsy Rose Lee
Praying is like masturbating. It makes you feel really good, but it doesn’t do a damn thing for the person in the picture you were looking at
Unknown
Reminds me of the time I got caught at camp sayin’ a novena.
I’ve been wondering lately if we won’t see a wave of ultra-progressives — largely middle-upper class young people, likely mostly white — start converting to Islam, for various reasons (signalling, “solidarity,” “religion of peace,” etc.). Would be an interesting phenomenon if it comes to fruition, and it would not be without precedent.
I meant to type “upper-middle to upper class.”
Expressions of piety like Sinead’s in this tweet of her’s seem kind of creepy to me and make me a bit uncomfortable.
Another example is the Catholic wedding I went to a few weeks ago. At the ceremony, in a large ornate church, there were a number of people that were fervent/i> in their participation in the rituals that require responses from the flock. Yes, I’ve seen this kind of thing many times in my life but it still surprises me how grown adults in a modern society can be so invested in this ridiculous and often vile religion. It’s bizarre and creepy to witness. It is so self-demeaning
For anyone who doesn’t have any direct experience with the actual workings of a major religion, you may have an intellectual understanding of it but you haven’t really gotten the full impact of it. You should make a point of going to church a few times and experiencing it first hand. I’d recommend a Catholic Church since it’s one of the oldest, wealthiest and most widespread sects. I’d further recommend weddings and funerals. That any woman in a modern society would want to get married in a Catholic Church is just nuts to me. The entire ceremony is about the subjugation of the woman to the man. You don’t really “get” just how barbaric and bizarre Catholicism is until you experience it first hand yourself.
Oops. Italics on the loose. Missing tag bracket.
This sparked a thought in my mind. I’ve always been creeped out by that kind of intense reaction during some religious ceremonies. But, in reading your post, I suddenly thought to myself, “I’ve seen this behavior in nonreligious contexts.” Think protests or concerts where there are extremely devoted fans.
Oh, definitely. Crazed Beatles fans, soccer hooligans, etc. . .
It seems to me that religion doesn’t have a monopoly on any particular negative human behavior, it just leverages them all better than anything else.
My (atheist) daughter chose to go to a Catholic High School to be with some of her friends. Tragically, one of her band mates drowned one year and we went to an outdoor ceremony at the school, in which I eventually found myself in the midst of a huge circle of adults chanting the Hail Mary over and over and over. The first thing I flashed on were early National Geographic TV specials showing primitive tribes behaving similarly. I stood there looking around at all those people seemingly in a trance-like state and it was eerie as hell.
Oh yes,that would have given me the creeps had I been caught up in that.
Most Catholic funerals I’ve been to have pissed me off as much as creeped me out. The priests spend about 5 minutes on honoring the dead person and the remaining time haranguing the audience with a used-car-salesman-like pitch about how hopelessly bad they are and that only total subjugation to God will save them.
Now that you mention that, I remember hearing the same thing from other sources. So disgusting!
I also remember something about part of the liturgy expressing the “sure and certain hope” for a heavenly afterlife. “Sure and certain hope??! (Aha, they admit it…)
I think, however, that this was a coping reaction (both for these Catholics and for the primitive tribes).
Leaves me wondering. Do new Trump acolytes go through a similar induction ceremony? Perhaps the donning of the MAGA cap? Certainly a similar level of commitment to a false god.
Paul, not everything is about Trump 🙂
Actually, until we are past the mid-term elections, it really is.
No Paul, respectfully it really isn’t especially for those of us who do not live in the US of A.
He really does not need to be injected into every discourse.
As has been mentioned, she has recently been coming apart mentally, so it is no surprise that she would be attracted to, adopt and embrace some form of governance – a cage of control, which Islam conveniently provides. Believing is easier than thinking, thus so many more believers than thinkers.
Well, I think the hijab makes sense, given her hair style. 😛
Why you say that Adam? She has a fine shaped face/head – the sort that ‘set off’ a short cut.
I saw that broadcast live, and East Coasters did.
She should really have ripped a photo of JP2’s right hand man, Cardinal Ratzinger, the chief engineer of many of the bad policies of the church in that day, just as Roy Cohn is the chief architect of many of the bad policies of McCarthyism.
One of my favorite critiques of how the Arab world treats women remains the book “Reading Lolita in Tehran”
I have o other way to contact you, but your President is in the news!
https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-proof-about-where-symmetries-cant-exist-20181023/
Oh, please! Those guys who figured it out think they’re soooo special. Well, I figured out the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap years ago.
In case anyone is wondering, the answer is 4 🙂
“your President”
Oh, that’s the Prez of the U of Chicago. Had me wondering till I chased the link.
But I suppose the other (orange) one would get scare quotes, as in ” your ‘President’ (?) ”
cr
Yeah, there I was, trying to figure out what the hell Trump had to do with this… 😉
I’d so love to know what it’s like to have the brains to revel in theoretical math or physics…
Steve, this is a good article in Quanta! So glad someone else has read it.
Does not change the fact that the former Ms. O’Conner suffers from cognitive dissonance. Terminal, that is.
So sad. I enjoy her music.
Maybe she’ll do duets with Cat Stevens.
“Sinéad O’Connor finds Allah”
Oh? Where? Didn’t know they’d lost him.
And in other news, anyone notice the oxymoron in “intelligent theologian” ?
[/sarcasm]
cr
I see several people did. Must read all comments before leaping into print and looking stupid. 8-(
cr
Nothing Compares to PBUH
I think you win. I had ‘Nothing compares to stU-pid.
She’s attempted suicide in the past. I’m concerned her next attempt will involve an explosive vest and innocent bystanders.
“Brave” to rip up a picture of the Pope in 1992? Why? Were Catholics going to riot? Was the Pope going to put out a fatwa on her? No, it was perfectly safe (if histrionic) leftyism.