Irish singer, who raised voice against child abuse in Church, embraces Islam

coastaldigest.com web desk
October 26, 2018

Newsroom, Oct 26: Popular Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who is best known for her 1990 hit version of the song Nothing Compares 2 U, has announced her conversion to Islam and said she has changed her name to Shuhada’ Davitt.

The 51-year-old has been posting selfies of herself wearing hijabs on Twitter in recent days, as well as a video in which she gave the Azan, or call to prayer.

She tweeted on October 19: "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."

She again tweeted that she is "very, very happy," and apologized for mispronouncing some Arabic words during her recitation of the Azan.

She replaced her Twitter profile picture with a photo that reads "Wear a hijab just do it" alongside the Nike logo.

Controversy has followed her career. The singer ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II during a Saturday Night Live appearance in 1992 as a protest against the Catholic Church. Later she said in an interview with TIME that she was prompted to do so by the Catholic Church's record of child abuse.

In the late 1990s, she was ordained a priest by the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, which is an independent Catholic group not in communion with the mainstream Catholic Church. The Catholic Church dismissed the ordination of the singer at the time as "bizarre and absurd."

In 2011, she again criticized the Catholic Church over the child sex abuse scandal, in an article for the Sunday Independent.

She dubbed the Vatican "a nest of devils," calling for the creation of an "alternative church'," and lamenting that "Christ is being murdered by liars" in the Vatican.

Pope Francis spoke during his visit to Ireland earlier this year of his shame over the "appalling crimes" of historic child abuse in the Catholic Church and said outrage was justified.

In 2015, the mother of four posted on her Facebook page that she had overdosed in the wake of a custody battle involving her youngest son and his father, Irish musician Donal Lunny. Police later said they had located O'Connor and she was "safe and sound."

The following year, O'Connor was reported missing in Chicago when she did not return from a bike ride, but police found her a day later.

Originally from Ireland, the singer has been a firm supporter of a united Ireland, under which the United Kingdom would relinquish control of Northern Ireland.

Although her embrace of Islam attracted criticism and anti-Islamic remarks, it was broadly welcomed by fellow Muslims online.

"Salaam (a greeting that means "peace") and keep up the good work," said Immy Khan. "You have 1.7 billion brothers and sisters now."

On October 25 Davitt tweeted: "Thank you so much to all my Muslim brothers and sisters who have been so kind as to welcome me to Ummah (the Muslim community) today on this page. You can't begin to imagine how much your tenderness means to me."

Comments

ABDUL AZIZ
 - 
Saturday, 27 Oct 2018

ALHAMDULILLAH,    welcome to a peacefull religion Islam,  Allah Amighty guides whoever he wishes .

zahoor ahmed
 - 
Saturday, 27 Oct 2018

All praises be to Allah, Who guides you to Islam.

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News Network
March 29,2020

New Delhi, Mar 29: "What corona? My children are hungry, they have walked from Gurugram with me do you think corona is what I fear?," Yogesh Gangwar who is salesman in a cloth showroom said as he wiped his tears.

Many others regret for not leaving the city early on.

"God knows when we will reach our hometown. My family was telling me to leave work early in March and get back, but I avoided suggestions and now I am stranded here," Babu Ram who hails from Rampur and works at a plastic recycling factory here in Mundka told media.

Migrant labourers were forced to walk as the public transport were closed and borders were sealed due to the lockdown.

"There is no food to eat, I cannot pay rent of room without my daily wages so I decided to walk with my family from Narela to here. I just hope I get a bus soon," Revati, who works as construction labour said as she fed her three-year-old with pieces of bread that one of the policemen at Anand Vihar gave her.

However, when Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh decided to deploy around 1,000 buses to help these workers reach their respective hometowns, thousands of them reached Anand Vihar ISBT with a hope to catch one of these buses.

The Delhi government also announced that 100 buses have been deployed to help those trying to reach to their homes in other states on foot.

In order to avoid the spread of the virus, the police asked the people to stand in three queues and also asked the people to de-board the overcrowded buses.

Earlier, budget passenger carrier SpiceJet had offered its aircraft to operate few flights from Delhi and Mumbai to Patna to take migrant labourers, particularly from Bihar, who have got stuck in various parts of the country due to COVID-19 related lockdown.

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News Network
March 8,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 8: The economic slowdown in the country had a cascading effect on Karnataka, as its growth rate for outgoing fiscal 2019-20 is projected to be 6.8 per cent against 7.8 per cent in the last fiscal (2018-19), a senior official said on Saturday.

"The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) is estimated to be 1 per cent less at 6.8 per cent for this fiscal from 7.8 per cent in the last fiscal due to slowdown in manufacturing (industry) and services sectors," an official of the state finance department told media.

Though the agriculture sector has revived from 1.6 per dent in the drought-hit last fiscal (2018-19) to register 3.9 per cent this fiscal, growth rates of industries and services will be 4.8 per cent and 7.9 per cent for 2019-20 against 5.6 per cent and 9.8 per cent respectively in 2018-19.

"The GSDP is projected to grow at 6.3 per cent in the ensuing fiscal of 2020-21 due to continued slowdown in the national economy," the official hinted.

According to the state's economic survey for 2019-20, the farm sector grew more than double to 3.9 per cent from 1.6 per cent a year ago due to increase in the production of foodgrains, dairy products and fish catch.

Foodgrain production across the state rose to 136 lakh tonnes from 128 lakh tonnes a year ago, the survey revealed.

"In line with the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate decline, Karnataka's GSDP has declined from a high of 13.3 per cent in 2016-17 to a low of 6.8 per cent in 2019-20.

"The GSDP has declined from a double-digit growth of 10.8 per cent in 2017-18 to 7.8 per cent in 2018-19 and 6.8 per cent in 2019-20," the survey pointed out.

The survey has adopted the all-India growth rate for the services sector growth in the state, which reflects the impact of slowdown in the key sector.

At current prices, the southern state's GSDP is expected to be Rs 16,99,115 crore (budget estimates) with a 10 per cent growth rate in the next fiscal (2020-21).

"Real estate, professional services and ownership of dwellings contributed 35.31 per cent to the GSDP in 2019-20, followed by manufacturing with 15.32 per cent, trade and repair services 9.51 per cent and crops 7.44 per cent," said the survey findings.

Per capital income in the state at current prices is estimated to be Rs 2,31,246 in 2019-20, an increase of 8.8 per cent from Rs 2,12,477 in 2018-19.

"The per capita income in the state is 58.4 per cent more than that of all-India rate at Rs 1,35,050 in this fiscal," the survey added.

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coastaldigest.com news network
August 2,2020

Mangaluru, Aug 2: Former Minister and Mangaluru City MLA U T Khader has gone into self-quarantine after former MLC Ivan D’Souza tested positive for coronavirus. 

Mr D’Souza had met Mr Khader and many other Congress leaders a day before receiving his throat swab test results. 

Mr Khader announced on twitter: “Have gone into self-quarantine with immediate effect after receiving the news about #Covid_19 positive test of Former MLC Ivan D’Souza & his wife Dr Kavitha. Being COVID Incharge DK District taskforce committee, I am one among Ivan's primary contact.”

“I am going to discharge my duties from home for the next few days. You can reach out over phone at any point of time. I appeal to all my colleagues and friends who may have come in contact with us in the last few days to get tested for #Covid_19” he tweeted.

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