Tony Blair’s sister-in-law sparks outrage after describing October 7 as ‘legendary’

From the Daily Mail

Sir Tony Blair‘s sister-in-law has sparked outrage after footage emerged of her describing October 7 as a ‘legendary day’ for Muslims.

Lauren Booth, a British-born journalist who has converted to Islam, said ‘only Allah knows’ how many ‘millions’ would pick up the Quran in the wake of the attacks, arguing that the world had reached a historic ‘tipping point’.

The comments, made during an interview with Turkish media last year, have sparked outrage given that October 7 marked the deadliest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.

They will likely also cause major embarrassment for Sir Tony following his efforts to play a key role in a Gaza peace deal.

Booth, 58, who is Cherie Blair’s half-sister, told Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak that ‘after October 7, this October 7, a legendary day in the Ummah’s history, yes, we can say that people are now picking up the Quran because of the steadfastness and sabr [patience] of the people of Gaza’.

Booth, who now lives in Istanbul, also said she had been ‘annoyed’ with Palestinians over what she described as a lack of determination to ‘hate all Jews or just take Jewish life’.

‘I got a little bit annoyed with the Palestinians when I met them at first because I thought they had Stockholm syndrome,’ she said, recounting an earlier visit to Gaza.

‘Because not only were they not determined to hate all Jews or just take Jewish life, they said Allah will sort this out for us… we must be steadfast. And I was so angry that I said you really need to be resisting this in a different way.’

The footage emerged as part of an investigation led by Israeli journalist Elchanan Groner of the news site ‘Hakol Hayehudi’ (The Jewish Voice), in association with the Shomron cinema fund for a Channel 14 documentary directed by Avraham Shapira titled ‘Ashraf Marwan’ – A Cover Name.

Andrew Fox, senior associate fellow at counter-extremism think tank the Henry Jackson Society, said Booth’s remarks ‘could trigger scrutiny or enforcement actions’ from the police should she return to the UK in the near future.

Booth and Cherie Blair are the daughters of actor Tony Booth, who played ‘Scouse git’ Mike in 1960s sitcom Till Death Us Do Part.  To be strictly accurate, the phrase to describe the character he played, used regularly by MIke’s father-in-law Alf Garnett (played by Warren Mitchell) was ‘randy scouse git’. I have no idea whether it was intended as an oblique jib at Tony Booth’s behaviour in real life.  He had 8 daughters by 5 different women, not all of whom he was married to and 4 wives not all of whom he had children with. Until popular DNA testing several daughters didn’t know of the exisitence of the others  until quite late in life. So far as the gossip columns told Cherie Blair (nee Booth) and Lauren Booth were brought up separately with their mothers.

Booth, once a regular on the London social circuit, converted to Islam in 2010 following a trip to Iran, and has worked for the country’s news channel, Press TV.

She has since advocated for some of Britain’s most controversial Muslim charities, including CAGE, the organisation which described ISIS killer Jihadi John as ‘a beautiful young man’ – and has previously been exposed by the Mail for using meetings on university campuses to ‘sabotage’ the Government’s anti-extremism programme.

In 2008, she was issued a diplomatic passport by then-Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh after participating in an attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.

She was a vocal critic of Blair’s government, calling Sir Tony a ‘moral coward’ over the Iraq War, and joined George Galloway at the premiere of The Killings of Tony Blair, a film produced and directed by Galloway that mocked Sir Tony’s premiership between 1997 and 2007.

I don’t see her as a serious threat to any peaceful solution, but her views are not unique and it does no good to pretend that Jew hatred isn’t as virulent in some quarters as it really is.