Sinead O’Connor steps out in red hijab after embracing Islam, apologizes for calling white people 'disgusting'
Sinead O'Connor was spotted sporting a bright red abaya and a matching hijab as she appeared on RTE One's 'The Late Late Show' in Dublin on September 6. The 52-year-old singer was accompanied by her son, 15-year-old Shane Lunny, when she arrived in the studio earlier in the day.
The Sun reports that O'Connor was dressed more casually when she made her entrance, looking happy and relaxed in blue trousers, a matching belted shirt and a navy cardigan. She completed the look with a dark blue headscarf. Her son Shane, who bears a striking resemblance to his mother's own iconic look with glasses and a shaven head, was seen dressed down in an oversized black jumper with matching joggers carrying his mother's red abaya into the venue. The star is also a mother to three other children: 32-year-old Jake, 23-year-old Roisin, and 12-year-old Yeshua.
In October 2018, Sinead announced her conversion to Islam, changing her name to Shuhada Davitt as she embraced her new religion. She tweeted at the time: "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."
She also stirred up controversy around the same time after she made a statement which she tweeted in November 2018: "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." During her appearance on 'The Late Late Show', Metro reports that O'Connor apologized for her comments.
"As regards to remarks I made while angry and unwell, about white people… they were not true at the time and they are not true now," she wrote on Twitter on September 8. "I was triggered as a result of islamophobia dumped on me. I apologize for hurt caused. That was one of many crazy tweets lord knows."
Explaining the "racist" posts, Sinead added: "I don’t really hate white people, it’s just the way I see it is Twitter would close my account if I said I did because they closed my account for saying I don’t like nuns murdering babies in Ireland."
She added: "I was rather hoping they would close my page if I said I hated white people. But they didn’t."
It comes after, Sinead revealed she had found ‘home’ in Islam. During her appearance on The Late Late Show, Sinead detailed her conversion to Islam: " I never thought I'd join another religion. I left Islam till last as I had so much prejudice about Islam, you know. I read chapter two of the Qu’ran and I realized I'm home, and that I've been a Muslim all my life. There's a way of thinking. You can be a Muslim without actually being a Muslim as it's a headset. A Muslim is someone who believes nothing should be worshiped except God. In the same way,I would have embraced Christianity, there's things I like and things I don't like; things I identify with and things I don't.But I really felt, oh my god, I’m home."