The 52-year-old singer converted to Islam in 2018 and changed her name to Shuhada Davitt and has explained that once she read the Quran – the central religious text of Islam – she knew Islam was the religion for her.
Speaking on ITV’s ‘Good Morning Britain’, Sinéad said: “As soon as I read chapter 2 of the Quran, I was like, oh my God I’ve been a Muslim my whole life and didn’t even know it.
“In Islam you don’t call it conversion, you call it reversion, the idea is you were born Muslim in the first place, any person with any logic would see they were Muslim all along. So that’s actually what happened to me.”
Speaking about the reaction from other Muslims, she said: “Very nice reaction. Muslims are lovely people, Muslims are very tender and very loving people, despite what anyone may think. You’re a sister.”
However, she admitted she has been the subject of prejudice from others, explaining: “Oh yeah, it makes me laugh. It actually makes me laugh. I suppose I’m used to as a woman, and as a bit of a controversial woman, I’m used to putting up with abuse. In a strange way it makes me proud, I can’t really explain why, if somebody hates me because I’m a Muslim I stand up a bit taller actually. It did at first make me angry.
During the interview, Sinéad also spoke about her close relationship with her children; Roisin Waters, Yeshua Bonadio, Shane Lunny and Jake Reynolds.
She said: “Brilliant. My kids are very proud of me. They just know mum in her slippers.”
However, she revealed that the death of her own mother, when Sinéad was just 18, still affects her.
Speaking about her 1990 song ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, she said: “I love it. I always think of my mother when I sing it. My mother died when I was very young, in a car crash when I was 18. I always get to spend time with my mother when I sing that song. So I close my eyes and think of my mother.
“I’d say she probably does make something of my career, in so far as I believe there’s life after death. I’d say she’s very proud. Herself and my father were amateur singers… She had a very broad musical taste, it was really down to her and my father that I became a singer.”
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Explaining why she was crying in the music video for ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ – which was written by Prince – Sinéad said: “That’s when I was thinking of my mother. It was only about a year and a half two years [later] so it was quite raw.”
