Irish singer Sinead O'Connor was once made infamous by her public denunciation of the pope and the Catholic church after an appearance on Saturday Night Live. Back then, O'Connor was protesting the church's cover-up of numerous paedophilic sex scandals. In her 1992 live appearance, she tore up a picture of John Paul II while performing an a cappella version of Bob Marley's song 'War', and stated: "fight the real enemy."
But now O'Connor, who has recently converted to Islam and changed her name to Shuhada’ Davitt, has come out with a statement that's arguably even more controversial. She's now stated that she no longer wants anything to do with white people, even going so far as to call them "disgusting."
She wrote: "I'm terribly sorry. What I'm about to say is something so racist I never thought my soul could ever feel it. But truly I never wanna spend time with white people again (if that's what non-muslims are called). Not for one moment, for any reason. They are disgusting." She later added: "Interesting to see if Twitter bans this when it allows people like Trump and Milbank spew the satanic filth upon even my country ... Forgive me. Sometimes the Lord needs dirty workers ; )"
However, many Twitter users have reacted with shock and outrage as a result of her comments. One person wrote: "Good and bad people are everywhere be it any cast or creed or religion", while another replied: "No one’s ethnicity makes them disgusting, no matter which individuals you’ve encountered."
Another person added: "My sis this is just a handful of ppl who’ve treated you this way. Not all non-Muslims will mistreat you. Just as not all Muslims will treat you well. As a revert myself (over 22 years), I have experienced prejudice from Muslims who have very narrow-minded views about reverts."
Indeed, a number of Muslim commenters had choice words for Davitt, with a Muslim commenter writing: "So you convert to Islam and now you don't want to spend time with white people? If you really think that you're an embarrassment to Islam, and I for one would not want you tarnishing my religion with this hate speech #notintheirname." Another wrote: "Sister, saying sorry at the beginning of an insult only worsens the insult. A Muslim should be above this behaviour. Allah knows best."
Davitt, who was formerly an ordained Catholic priest herself, first announced her conversion to Islam on Twitter back in October of 2018. She posted an image of herself wearing a hijab and captioned the picture: "This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. 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."
Contrary to Davitt's predictions, Twitter has not currently taken down her tweets or deleted her account.
