Tony Blair muslim in-law,

Tony Blair's sister-in-law Lauren Booth converts to Islam after a 'holy experience' in Iran

By MAIL ON SUNDAY REPORTER

Last updated at 2:02 PM on 24th October 2010

Conversion: Lauren Booth

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. 

‘Now I don’t eat pork and I read the Koran every day. I’m on page 60. I also haven’t had a drink in 45 days, the longest period in 25 years,' she said. 

'The strange thing is that since I decided to convert I haven’t wanted to touch alcohol, and I was someone who craved a glass of wine or two at the end of a day.’

Refusing to discount the possibility that she might wear a burka, she said: ‘Who knows where my spiritual journey will take me?’

Before her awakening in Iran, she had been ‘sympathetic’ to Islam and has spent considerable time working in Palestine. ‘I was always impressed with the strength and comfort it gave,’ she said of the religion.

Miss Booth, who works for Press TV, the English-language Iranian news channel, has been a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq.

In August 2008 she travelled to Gaza by ship from Cyprus, along with 46 other activists, to highlight Israel’s blockade of the territory. 

She was subsequently refused entry into both Israel and Egypt.

In 2006 she was a contestant on the ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity .  .  . Get Me Out Of Here!, donating her fee to the Palestinian relief charity Interpal.

She said she hoped her conversion would help Mr Blair change his presumptions about Islam. 

Influential position: Lauren Booth hopes her conversion will have an influence on how her brother-in-law - Tony Blair - views Islam

During her visit to Iran last month, Booth wrote a public letter to Mr Blair asking him to mark Al-Quds (Jerusalem) day - a protest at Israel's occupation of Palestine.

The missive was a bitter attack on the former Prime Minister, who is now a Middle East envoy working for peace in the troubled region. 

'The men, women and children around me withstood a day of no water and no food (it’s called Ramadan, Tony, it’s a fast),' Booth wrote.

'Coping with hunger and thirst in the hundred degrees heat, as if it were nothing. They can withstand deprivation in the Muslim world. 

'Here in Iran they feel proud to suffer in order to express solidarity with the people of Palestine. It's kind of like the way you express solidarity with America only without illegal chemical weapons and a million civilian deaths.'

She adds: 'Your world view is that Muslims, are mad, bad, dangerous to know. A contagion to be contained. 

'In the final chapter [of his autobiography] you say we need a "religious counter attack" against Islam. And by "Islam" you mean the Al Quds rallies, the Palestinian intifada (based on an anti Apartheid struggle Tony, NOT religious bigotry), against every Arab who fails to put their arms in the air as the F16 missiles rain on their homes and refugee camps and sing a rousing chorus of ‘Imagine all the people...’

Booth stands next to a damaged building in Gaza in 2008

Booth moved to France with her family - husband Craig Darby and two daughters Alexandra and Holly in 2004.

Her husband was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident in April 2009 when he was drunk and not wearing a helmet.

He suffered a severe brain injury, a fractured neck, damage to his spine and several broken ribs and was in a deep coma for two weeks. 

The 42-year-old had to learn how to walk and talk again. He lost much of his memory, has sight problem and cannot work. 

The couple decided to move back to Britain to help his recovery and reduce the amount of time Booth has to work away from home. 

Booth with husband Craig and daughters Alex and Holly at their home in France last year. They have now returned to Britain

Booth took part in I'm A Celebrity... Get Met Out of Here! in 2006 alongside Myleene Klass and Jason Donovan, finishing ninth. 

Of her relationship with the Blairs, she said at the time: 'I'm happy to criticise them politically if they deserve it but that on a personal level we get on fine.'

Mr Blair was famously told not to 'do God' by his spin doctor Alistair Campbell while he was Prime Minister.

But on leaving office, he converted to Catholicism after starting to go to Mass - saying later that it was his wife who spurred his decision.

He said last year that it was like 'coming home' and is now 'where my heart is, where I know I belong'.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323278/Tony-Blairs-sister-law-Lauren-Booth-converts-Islam-holy-experience-Iran.html#ixzz1diR9ZhRr

tony Blair

Tony Blair: Euro collapse would be catastrophic

Tony Blair: ''The choices are very difficult and very painful''

Continue reading the main story

Global Economy

• What's the matter with Italy?
• How might Greece leave the euro?
• Eurozone crisis explained
• Euro deal at a glance

Former prime minister Tony Blair has told the BBC the collapse of the euro would be "catastrophic" - and Europe must get behind it.

Mr Blair said he hoped it would not collapse, but European leaders faced "very difficult and painful" choices.

A "long-term framework of credibility" was needed, he said, which included "strong fiscal co-ordination".

Chancellor George Osborne told the BBC there must be more co-operation on tax and spending in eurozone countries.

'Whole weight'

As the debt crisis continues to grip the eurozone, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has resigned - expected to be replaced by former EU commissioner and economist Mario Monti - after a week which saw the Italian cost of borrowing hit 7%, the level at which Greece, Ireland and Portugal were forced to seek external help.

In Greece, Lucas Papademos has been sworn in as prime minister - after his predecessor George Papandreou was forced to step aside following a call for a referendum on a eurozone rescue package for the debt-laden country.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

The myth that the Italian and German economies were the same - that ten-year myth has now evaporated”

Tony Blair

In his interview, Mr Blair told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show there had "never been a tougher time to be a leader than right now".

But he said the "whole weight" of European institutions - including the European Central Bank - had to stand behind the euro and a "long-term" frame work was needed.

"Major reforms" were needed to the European social model and European budget - as well as more "strong fiscal co-ordination" and warned European leaders not to get "behind the curve" in their decisions.

He said economies had to align: "The myth that the Italian and German economies were the same - that ten-year myth has now evaporated."

Measures needed to stabilise the single currency would be painful, he said, but added: "If the single currency broke up, it would be catastrophic."

Tax co-operation

Mr Blair said he believed the single currency crisis had exposed the need for reform - but ageing European populations, and the state of welfare, government and public services meant change was always necessary.

Asked if his former chancellor Gordon Brown had been right to push hard for Britain not to go into the euro, when Labour was in power, Mr Blair said: "He was right, although I would also say by the way, I was never in favour of doing it unless the economics were right."

He said looking at the "very long term", assuming the euro stabilises, Britain should always "keep the option open" of joining the euro: "But right now we have our own issues to look at too."

In an interview with the BBC's Politics Show, UK Chancellor George Osborne also said there would have to be more co-operation between eurozone countries on financial issues - as long as the EU could still work for members which were not members of the euro.

"The lasting answer is that the countries of the eurozone are going to have to co-operate much more closely on issues of tax and spending.

"There's got to be more integration - the kind of thing actually that Britain would not tolerate and is one of the reasons we didn't go in the euro."

On Friday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said there was still "a big question mark" over the future of the eurozone. He says it is not in Britain's interests for the single currency to break up but the government is "preparing for every eventuality".

But Labour leader Ed Miliband has said Mr Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne are using the eurozone debt crisis "as a cloak to hide their lack of action" on boosting UK economic growth.

Labour says the government is choking off growth through its tough deficit reduction programme.

In a speech on Saturday Mr Miliband said: "Our growth stalled, and problems started before the eurozone crisis escalated. But David Cameron and George Osborne are still sitting on their hands at home, refusing to admit they are wrong."

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Global Economy

Essentials

• What's the matter with Italy?

• How might Greece leave the euro?

• Eurozone crisis explained

• Euro deal at a glance

• Q&A: How Greek crisis affects UK

• Europe's four big dilemmas

• Experts debate eurozone options

• Euro crisis originsWatch

• Charting Europe's economic woes

• Stiglitz: Austerity not the way

• Domino effect

Background and analysis

• EU's troublesome referendums

  After Greece controversially announced it will put its latest European bail-out package to a referendum, the BBC examines how past referendums have hampered the European project.

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• Financial glossary

• Timeline of crisis

• Q&A: Bonds and eurobonds

• What is a rating agency?

Key stories

• Asian investors cautious on Italy

• IMF chief warns of 'lost decade'

• China inflation eases in October

• Italy borrowing rate hits record

Video Reports

• Italy begins bond saleWatch

  Italy has been auctioning 5bn euros worth of government bonds in the face of fast evaporating investor confidence in the country.

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• Is the eurozone unravelling?Watch

• 'A war of markets against Europe'

HSBC gave its starkest warning to date that new regulations might force it to leave Britain

By Steve Slater and Douwe Miedema

LONDON | Wed Nov 9, 2011 12:45pm EST

(Reuters) - HSBC gave its starkest warning to date that new regulations might force it to leave Britain and said its U.S. bad debts had jumped as more homeowners stopped payments on their mortgages.

Europe's biggest bank on Wednesday reported a 36 percent fall in third quarter profits as the euro zone debt crisis hit investment bank income, while strains in the U.S. economy saw bad debts there jump by almost $1 billion, the first rise in two years.

Extra British regulations could cost HSBC $2.5 billion a year, which it said may be "too high" to stay, though it would delay its decision to move its headquarters back to Hong Kong or elsewhere until at least next year.

HSBC's London-listed shares fell 5.8 percent, as analysts said underlying profits of $3 billion in the three months to the end of September fell short of expectations and there was also disappointment on rising costs and U.S. bad debts.

"Asian growth is insufficient to fill the hole left by run-off of the Household disaster in the U.S., and (investment bank) GBM profitability has fallen sharply," said Ian Gordon, analyst at Evolution Securities. "The challenge of improving the group's cost efficiency is tortuous," he added.

The wider market was also under pressure and the EU bank index fell 4 percent as Italy's borrowing costs surged to more than 7 percent, raising fears it will also need a bailout that Europe cannot afford.

"The outlook for the global economy is very challenging as problems in developed markets begin to affect growth rates around the world," HSBC Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said.

Gulliver, who wants to cut annual costs by $3.5 billion and sharpen the bank's focus on Asia by quitting countries where it lacks scale, said he was making progress on costs and the turnaround plan, but it would be a long haul and external headwinds were building.

Losses on bad debts swelled to $3.9 billion in the third quarter, up $1 billion from the previous quarter, as U.S. impairments jumped by 64 percent to $2.4 billion, which the bank blamed on a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures.

"We're seeing the effects of moral hazard, where even seriously delinquent customers simply cannot be foreclosed on by banks operating in the United States," Finance Director Iain Mackay told journalists on a conference call.

"We believe we're seeing people taking payment holidays from their mortgages recognizing that banks are unable to foreclose on them," Mackay said.

Delinquencies on loans jumped in September. There was some stabilization in October, although the bank said a return to more normal foreclosure activity could weaken house prices.

HSBC became one of the biggest providers of U.S. mortgages for customers with a weaker credit history after its purchase of Household Finance eight years ago. It has closed the business and is running down its $50 billion loan book.

U.S. regulators suspended foreclosures, although banks in some states have restarted foreclosure actions since.

PACKING SUITCASES

HSBC fired a warning shot at British politicians who are considering imposing tougher regulations, saying the cost might prompt it to move its headquarters out of the country where it has been based for the last 18 years.

Gulliver said requiring banks to hold substantial debt that can absorb losses if it hits trouble could force HSBC to issue $55 billion of senior debt, at an annual cost of $2.1 billion. He said deposit-rich HSBC does not need this extra buffer.

It pays another $400 million on its overseas assets under a UK bank levy.

"You get to a $2.5 billion cost for being UK headquartered. This is a non-trivial decision, you don't move your head office on a regular basis," Gulliver said.

Mackay said of the $2.5 billion cost: "We would probably view that as too high."

Gulliver said the decision would not take place at this month's board meeting, and would likely be taken in the next year to 18 months. It would only consider moving the holding company abroad, and the retail bank would "always" be based in the UK.

HSBC has so far said it will sell or retreat from 14 countries. They include the sale of its U.S. credit card business and branches in New York state, retail businesses in Russia, Poland and Chile, and its Canadian brokerage business. It is exiting Georgia.

It has also put its $1 billion general insurance business on the block.

HSBC's corporate clients provided a rare bright spot, but GBM's profit almost halved from the previous quarter to $1 billion. Operating income for credit and rates was a negative $460 million, swinging from income of $600 million the quarter before and offsetting strong profits in foreign exchange and equities.

Its costs so far this year were 54.6 percent of revenue, up from 54 percent last year, while it had reduced headcount by 5,000 since the first quarter.

The bank cut its holdings of the sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain to $5.5 billion by the end of September, from $8.2 billion three months earlier.

HSBC's London-listed shares closed down 31.2 pence at 506.3p. The stock has fallen 22 percent this year -- still not as bad as a 34 percent drop in the wider DJ index of European banks.

(Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters and Jane Merriman)