>Tony Blair’s sister-in-law Lauren Booth converts to Islam after a ‘holy experience’ in Iran
Tony Blair’s sister-in-law has converted to Islam after having a ‘holy experience’ in Iran.
Broadcaster and journalist Lauren Booth, 43 – Cherie Blair’s half-sister – said she now wears a hijab head covering whenever she leaves her home, prays five times a day and visits her local mosque ‘when I can’.
She decided to become a Muslim six weeks ago after visiting the shrine of Fatima al-Masumeh in the city of Qom.
‘It was a Tuesday evening and I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy,’ she told The Mail on Sunday.
When she returned to Britain, she decided to convert immediately.
What makes the news on Lauren Booth so special is not her conversion to Islam. Many British women convert to Islam, so what’s so great that the Brit media wants to report about this?
Well, what makes this news stand out is that Lauren is the sister-in-law of former PM Tony Blair. That’s why the Brit media hypes it up.
Yes, did I say “many Brit women” converting to Islam? Yes, that’s right. I didn’t know this fact either, until I did a search on that.
I only knew of one other high profile Brit woman convert – Yvonne Ridley. She was the journalist who was left to die by her countrymen, when she was caught by the Taliban and was accused of spying and collaborating with the West to invade Afghanistan, just before US and NATO waged war on the country.
The West (US and UK) were hoping the Taliban would kill her, so that they could rouse the emotions of Americans and Brits to support the upcoming invasion of Afghanistan. That was in 2001.
The Taliban, sensing the over-eagerness of the Western powers to have her killed, eventually believed her story and let her go – on condition she studied about Islam when she gets back to England. She kept her promise and on her return to England, read the Quran and converted.
I also know of another Brit woman, Karen Armstrong, who is a Muslim sympathizer (but not a convert). Other than that, I know not how many converts (let alone young women converts) there are in UK.
But somehow, Lauren’s conversion made me search the internet and I found that yes, many Brit women (and many of them young) do convert to Islam.
What an irony. London, the capital of UK, is one of the most Islamophobic cities in the world. That includes the fear of minarets and hijabs. It is also one of the cities where residents believe Muslim women are oppressed. So why the high conversion rate among the young women in UK?
Young. British. Female. Muslim.
Conversion statistics are frustratingly patchy, but at the time of the 2001 Census, there were at least 30,000 British Muslim converts in the UK. According to Kevin Brice, of the Centre for Migration Policy Research, Swansea University, this number may now be closer to 50,000 – and the majority are women. “Basic analysis shows that increasing numbers of young, university-educated women in their twenties and thirties are converting to Islam,” confirms Brice.
Back to Lauren Booth. I find her two young daughters have the most innocent answers to their mother’s conversion here.
Lauren Booth explains why she feel in love with Islam
I’m asked: “Will my daughters be Muslim?” I don’t know, that is up to them. You can’t change someone’s heart. But they’re certainly not hostile and their reaction to my surprising conversion was perhaps the most telling of all.
I sat in the kitchen and called them in. “Girls, I have some news for you,” I began. “I am now a Muslim.” They went into a huddle, with the eldest, Alex, saying: “We have some questions, we’ll be right back.”
They made a list and returned. Alex cleared her throat. “Will you drink alcohol any more?”
Answer: No. The response – a rather worrying “Yay!”
“Will you smoke cigarettes any more?” Smoking isn’t haram (for bidden) but it is harmful, so I answered: “No.”
Again, this was met with puritanical approval. Their final question, though, took me aback. “‘Will you have your breasts out in public now you are a Muslim?”
What??
It seems they’d both been embarrassed by my plunging shirts and tops and had cringed on the school run at my pallid cleavage. Perhaps in hindsight I should have cringed as well.
“Now that I’m Muslim,” I said, “I will never have my breasts out in public again.”
“We love Islam!” they cheered and went off to play. And I love Islam too.”
There lies the irony of the innocent girls’ words. While all the Western and “liberated” women scorn the hijab (which covers the woman’s modesty), it is the young and innocent who feel a woman (especially their mother) should be well covered.
