As Hugh Fitzgerald has often noted, Islam attracts the psychically marginal, for it provides a total explanation of the universe, taking away the difficult necessity of making moral decisions on one’s own. Islamic apologists often criticize Christianity for offering only “vague moral precepts,” comparing it unfavorably to Islam, which has a rule for everything that human beings can imagine doing. It is understandable that this total regulation of life would appeal to someone who has suffered from mental problems, as Sinead O’Connor has so publicly. That makes this a sad story. It is not, as O’Connor, aka Shuhada’ Davitt, “the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian’s journey”; if that were the case, there would be a steady stream of intelligent theologians converting to Islam, and it has yet to be proven that Sinead O’Connor is either intelligent or a theologian. It is much more obviously the ruthless exploitation of an emotionally unstable woman, and that is a shame.

“Sinead O’Connor converts to Islam, changes name to Shuhada’ Davitt,” by Debbie McGoldrick, IrishCentral, October 25, 2018: