What Was Sinéad O’Connor’s Religion?

Irish music legend Sinéad O’Connor will forever be known for her incredible cultural contributions. Sadly, she died in July 2023, just 18 months after the death of her 17-year-old son. And she caused quite a lot of controversy through the years, especially regarding her religious views. So, what was Sinéad O’Connor’s religion? Here’s what to know.

What was Sinéad O’Connor’s religion? She converted to Islam

Sinéad O’Connor’s religion changed through the years. She considered herself a Christian for quite some time, as she believed in Jesus Christ and the core concepts that Christianity taught. In the late 1990s, Bishop Michael Cox of the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church ordained her as a priest. But the Roman Catholic Church doesn’t consider the ordination of women valid, and they threatened excommunication for anyone ordaining women.

Nevertheless, O’Connor took becoming a priest seriously. She took on the name Mother Bernadette Marie. After her ordination, she went on The Late Late Show and announced, “What I call my holy trinity is I am mother, I am a singer, and I am a priest. These things are equally sacred to me,” Dublin Live reports.

By 2018, she converted to Islam and called it “the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey,” according to Smooth Radio. She uploaded a video of her singing the Islamic call to prayer and changed her name to Shuhada’ Davitt.

“This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim,” she tweeted. “This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant. I will be given (another) new name. It will be Shuhada.”

Sinéad O’Connor said she felt like a Muslim for her entire life

In 2019, Sinéad O’Connor talked about realizing she was a Muslim her whole life. “The word ‘revert’ refers to the idea that if you were to study the Quran, you would realize you were a Muslim all your life, and you didn’t realize it,” she told host Ryan Tubridy on The Late Late Show, according to The National. “And that is what happened to me.”

“I am 52 and grew up in a very different Ireland to the one that exists now,” she added. “It was a very oppressed country, religiously speaking. I started studying scriptures from different religious, trying to find the ‘truth’ about God …. I never thought I would join a religion, but I left Islam until last because I had so much prejudice about Islam. But then when I started reading, and I read just chapter two alone of the Quran, and I realized, ‘Oh my God, I am home.'”

“I had been a Muslim all my life and didn’t realize it,” she concluded.

As for wearing the hijab, O’Connor explained that she wears it when she feels like it. “There are no rules about it,” she continued. “I would associate myself with the Sufi element of Islam, I am not at my age required to wear the hijab …. I wear it because I like it.”

She tore up a photo of the pope to stand against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church

Sinéad O’Connor publicly stood against the Catholic religion on Saturday Night Live in 1992. While on the show, she tore up a photo of Pope John II in response to the Catholic Church covering up child sexual abuse. She was the musical guest at the time.

“A lot of people say or think that tearing up the pope’s photo derailed my career,” she wrote in her 2021 memoir Rememberings, according to People. “That’s not how I feel about it. I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track.”

How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. 

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