So, this happened.
According to this, Sinead has gone through the conversion process and now her name is Shuhada (which translates to “martyrs” in Arabic, because of course.)
You may remember Sinead from such things as posting suicidal videos from sleazy New Jersey hotel rooms. That post led to a Wall of Shame entry, because apparently the PC police don’t like it when you refer to someone who’s suicidal and bipolar (although she has both claimed and disavowed that diagnosis in different interviews) and posting disturbing videos as a “mess” even though that’s precisely the right word to describe them. According to the above linked source, after Sinead broke down and made that video, Russell Brand reached out to her to offer support, and her response was to beg him to give her a “good rogering.”
You may also remember Sinead from such things as being ordained as a priest by some weird fringe Catholic group back in the 90s, and also ripping up a photo of the Pope on Saturday Night Live. In 2007, she stated she was a Christian. In 2011, she called the Vatican a “nest of devils.”
Sinead has been married four times, had affairs with three women, and has four children (all with different fathers.) She announced her conversion to Islam on Twitter, using an account that doesn’t seem to be active anymore, saying, “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.’ She claimed she was given her first hijab by a friend of hers and that she got chills when she first tried it on.
This isn’t the first time Sinead has changed her name. Last year, she changed it to Magda Davitt, and apparently the reason was that she wanted to be “free of parental curses.”
Anyway, she’s a mess. And you won’t convince me otherwise. And I continue to hope that she gets whatever help she needs. My hunch is that Islam won’t be what actually helps her, but that’s her call.