Tony Blair's sister-in-law confirms conversion to Islam

Oct 25, 2010, 15:46 GMT

London - Lauren Booth, the 43-year-old sister-in-law of Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair, has converted to Islam after having a 'holy experience' at a shrine in Iran, the Daily Mail newspaper reported Monday.

Booth, who is married with two children, is a half-sister of Cherie Blair, the wife of the ex-prime minister.

As a journalist and human rights campaigner, Booth has reported for the Mail on Sunday from Gaza and travelled on blockade-busting aid vessels earlier this year. She also works for Press TV, the English-language Iranian news channel.

She lived in France for six years but recently returned to Britain after splitting from her husband, the actor Craig Darby, with whom she has two girls. Craig was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in 2009.

'I sat down and felt this shot of spiritual morphine, just absolute bliss and joy,' Booth wrote Monday in the Daily Mail about her experience in the Iranian holy city of Qom.

Her sister, Cherie, is a devout Roman Catholic, while Tony Blair converted from the Anglican faith to Catholicism in 2007. Booth frequently attacked Blair over the Iraq war, and recently also over his allegedly pro-Israeli stance as a Middle East envoy.

In a comment on Booth's conversion, one entry on a Muslim internet forum, published by the Daily Mail, read: 'Now a war criminal has an innocent sister in law! God bless her!'

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