The sad story of Sinead O’Connor is yet another example of a phenomenon that Hugh Fitzgerald has noted many times here at Jihad Watch: that Islam attracts the psychically marginal, who feel comfortable in an uncertain world being completely controlled, with Sharia providing a rule for every conceivable aspect of their behavior.

And a case can be made for her claim that at her age, she is not required to wear the hijab. The Qur’an says: “And women of post-menstrual age who have no desire for marriage – there is no blame upon them for putting aside their outer garments, not displaying adornment. But to modestly refrain is better for them. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.” (24:60)

However, the influential IslamQA.com site rules out the possibility that this means older women may uncover their hair (or bald heads, in Sinead’s case): “There is no dispute that the hair of an elderly woman is ‘awrah [nakedness] and it is not permissible for a non-mahram [non-relative] to look at it, as is the case with the hair of a young woman.”

Nonetheless, Sinead O’Connor thinks that hijab is her choice, and “there are no rules about it.” But what about Aqsa Parvez? Her Muslim father choked her to death with her hijab after she refused to wear it. Or for Aqsa and Amina Muse Ali, a Christian woman in Somalia whom Muslims murdered because she wasn’t wearing a hijab? They showed no concern for the 40 women who were murdered in Iraq in 2007 for not wearing the hijab; or for Alya Al-Safar, whose Muslim cousin threatened to kill her and harm her family because she stopped wearing the hijab in Britain; or for Amira Osman Hamid, who faced whipping in Sudan for refusing to wear the hijab; or for the Egyptian girl, also named Amira, who committed suicide after being brutalized by her family for refusing to wear the hijab; or for the Muslim and non-Muslim teachers at the Islamic College of South Australia who were told they had to wear the hijab or be fired; or for the women in Chechnya whom police shot with paintballs because they weren’t wearing hijab; or for the women in Chechnya who were threatened by men with automatic rifles for not wearing hijab; or for the elementary school teachers in Tunisia who were threatened with death for not wearing hijab; or for the Syrian schoolgirls who were forbidden to go to school unless they wore hijab; or for the women in Gaza whom Hamas has forced to wear hijab; or for the women in Iran who protested against the regime, even before the recent uprising, by daring to take off their hijabs; or for the women in London whom Muslim thugs threatened to murder if they didn’t wear hijab; or for the anonymous young Muslim woman who doffed her hijab outside her home and started living a double life in fear of her parents; or for the fifteen girls in Saudi Arabia who were killed when the religious police wouldn’t let them leave their burning school building because they had taken off their hijabs in their all-female environment; or for the girl in Italy whose mother shaved her head for not wearing hijab; or for all the other women and girls who have been killed or threatened, or who live in fear for daring not to wear the hijab.

Courageous women in the Islamic Republic of Iran are taking off their hijabs as a sign of resistance to the oppressive Sharia regime under which they live, and at least 29 women have been arrested for doing so. Who is standing in solidarity with them? Not Sinead O’Connor.

Also, what will she do when she finds out that music is haram?

“Sinead O’Connor: I had been a Muslim all my life and didn’t realise it … I am home,” by Farah Andrews, The National, September 8, 2019: