Rifqa Bary
From WikiIslam
Essay by Natassia
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[edit] Rifqa Bary's Story
This is the bizarre and disturbing account of an immigrant minor named Fathima Rifqa Bary. Born in Sri Lanka, her family moved to the United States to seek medical attention for her eye injury. Her older brother, approximately age 8 at the time, had thrown a toy airplane, blinding her in one eye. Her family remained in the United States illegally, overstaying their visa. They lived in New York and then moved to Ohio.
Rifqa's parents felt it was very important that they keep their Sri Lankan culture including the Islamic traditions. They did not want their children to become too "Westernized." Throughout her adolescence, Rifqa attended a mosque with her family on either Fridays or Saturdays, and she was required to wear the hijab there and memorize pages from the Qur'an. Rifqa was an exemplary student taking AP classes, and she was a cheerleader for her school's basketball and football games. Her parents did not understand exactly what cheerleading was, and not once did they attend the games. She hid her cheerleading photos from her parents, and they never purchased yearbooks. Rifqa, weighing only 75 lbs, described her father physically abusing her by "slamming" her in the face when she was too loud or "socking" her in the face for not wanting to wear the hijab to mosque. She described bruises as well as marks on her body from abusive incidents which, although more frequent when she was younger, still continued to happen as a teenager.
At the age of 13, Rifqa secretly converted to Christianity. She smuggled a Bible into her home and kept it hidden in various places. She attended church services and prayer meetings in secret between her school, work, and cheerleading schedules. Rifqa never became an official member of a church, and it doesn't appear that she ever affiliated herself with a particular denomination. Through the internet (namely Facebook) she found Christian friends from Ohio State University where there is an open prayer house.
Eventually, in June 2009, Rifqa's religious beliefs were discovered by a member of the Noor Islamic Cultural Center (which she and her family attended). Her parents were contacted by fellow Muslims regarding Rifqa's alleged change in religion. This is when Rifqa's father confronted her and threatened to hit her with a laptop. He threatened to kill her if she in fact left Islam for Christ. To calm her father, Rifqa told him that she truly desired to learn more about Islam. She remembered that "converting back" to Islam after apostasizing could save ones life.
It was at this time that Rifqa decided to be baptized just in case something happened to her. The date was June 28, 2009. In July her mother discovered one of Rifqa's books: The Mantle of Esther. Rifqa described her as "frantic" as she phoned her husband. Rifqa's father immediately deactivated her cell phone. That weekend Rifqa ran away. She left a note on the bed. Wearing only the clothes on her back and carrying a backpack, she headed to a neighbor's house at 7 am on Sunday and asked for a ride to a local church where she hid and prayed all day. At around 11 pm a police officer came and told her she needed to leave. Checking the database and finding that she had not been reported missing, he drove her to the neighbor's house at her request. The next morning Rifqa hitchhiked to the bus station and picked up a ticket purchased for her by Christian friends from Facebook. After two or three weeks of hiding out at a pastor's home in Florida, she learned that a friend, Brian Williams, was being accused of kidnapping. That is when she contacted the authorities. By this time she had turned 17 years of age.
On August 24, 2009 she was interviewed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who conducted a frighteningly mediocre investigation with Ohio police all the while maintaining ignorance of Islamic doctrine and shari'a law. Not only did Rifqa fear physical punishment from her father, but she also feared being sent back to Sri Lanka where "the laws are very different than here." She reiterated the fact that "kill" in Islam means to literally kill, and she genuinely feared for her life due to the dictates of Islam. She expressed fear of the Muslim community in Ohio because of the shari'a law regarding apostates.
Her parents fought to have Rifqa brought back to Ohio claiming that it was Ohio's jurisdiction, not Florida's. The judge in Florida ruled emergency jurisdiction until Rifqa's parents produced their immigration documents. Their lawyer made excuses and procrastinated, until nearly earning them a contempt-of-court charge. The Barys' lawyer made a deal (without notifying Rifqa's lawyer) with her guardian ad litem. Rifqa's parents promised to drop the case, allowing her to remain in foster care until her 18th birthday, if the motion for their immigration papers was dropped. Rifqa was then sent to Ohio where her parents promptly fired their lawyer, hired a new one, and continued in their case against Rifqa. On November 16, a hearing on her dependency was scheduled. Pamela Geller, journalist of Atlas Shrugs, planned a rally for this date. Days before the rally, it was made known that the hearing was stricken, and another hearing on Rifqa's alleged "incorrigibility" was scheduled for December 22. (Another rally is scheduled for that date in Columbus, Ohio.) The court process has been anything but transparent. Rifqa has been under what can only be called house arrest. She is taking online homeschooling classes and is unable to communicate with friends or pastoral care through the internet or phone.
Thanks to the diligence of Pamela Geller, a clearer picture of what is happening to Rifqa has been made possible since the mainstream media has, at times, been downright dishonest and biased when it was not turning a deliberately blind eye to her situation.
Read Rifqa's sworn affadavit here and the 35-page memorandum regarding the Noor Islamic Cultural Center here. For information regarding apostasy in Islam, see the information presented here, here, here, and here.
Don't fall for the takiyya of American Muslim groups like CAIR (who sat beside Rifqa's parents as they were interviewed by the police) and ISNA. There have been far too many honor killings in the West and world-wide for us to dismiss Rifqa as paranoid or a liar.
[edit] CAIR, Governor Strickland, & Rifqa Bary
The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal terrorism financing trial with ties to Al-Qaeda.
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland purportedly received campaign help from CAIR , and it is no secret that CAIR overwhelmingly supports the Democratic party over the GOP. On June 17, 2007 Governor Strickland spoke at the tenth annual banquet of the Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter in that state (CAIR-OH) where the national Chairman Dr. Parvez Ahmed and several prominent imams also spoke (see CAIR's article here), and he even succeeded in making a bit of a faux pas by touching a Muslim woman on the back. He addressed the crowd of 350 people, saying: “On behalf of all Ohioans, [my wife and I] appreciate your vision to promote justice and mutual understanding. We gather under CAIR-Ohio's theme this year, ‘American Muslims: Connecting and Sharing,’ to do just that, to connect and share and get to know each other better.” He also expressed appreciation for "the Muslim traditions of strong family, hard work, and education,” and presented a proclamation honoring CAIR-Ohio’s work. (See also Strickland's staffer's response to questions and comments about CAIR's questionable ties.)
So what does all this have to do with Rifqa Bary? First of all, Babak Darvish, Executive Director of CAIR Columbus, and Romin Iqbal, Staff Attorney for CAIR-OH, were present when FDLE/DCF investigators interviewed Rifqa's father at the Bary family residence. The Jawa Report revealed photographs proving Rifqa's parents' ties to CAIR. Governor Strickland is doing nothing to ensure that her civil rights are upheld while she is in foster care in Ohio. The 17-year-old apostate is forbidden from visiting with her friend, a pastor, as well as other Christians. Her phone and Internet access are still restricted, and she is taking high school classes on a computer at her foster care home, all thanks to Franklin County Juvenile Magistrate Mary Goodrich. In fact, in September, Governor Strickland issued this statement regarding the Rifqa Bary case which was still in Florida at the time: “We have no reason to believe that she would be unsafe in Ohio. Child welfare agencies and authorities in Ohio and Franklin County are fully capable of providing for the security and well-being of Ohio’s children. The Governor believes this is a family matter and therefore would most appropriately be handled here in Ohio with the assistance of the child welfare and foster care system.”
In 2003, a key finding of the Child and Family Services Review of Ohio’s child welfare programs was that the State did not achieve substantial conformity with any of the seven safety, permanency, or well-being outcomes. In addition, the State did not meet national standards for measures relating to repeat maltreatment, maltreatment of children in foster care, foster care re-entries, stability of foster care placements, the length of time to achieve reunification, or the length of time to achieve adoption.
According to an Executive Summary of the May 2009 Final Report: Ohio Child and Family Services Review: For the CFSR 12-month data period ending March 31, 2007, Ohio did not meet the national standards for the safety data indicators pertaining to the absence of maltreatment recurrence and the absence of maltreatment in foster care. In fact, Ohio is not in substantial conformity with Safety Outcome 1: Children are, first and foremost, protected from abuse and neglect. The outcome was substantially achieved in 63.2 percent of the applicable cases, which is less than the 95 percent required for a rating of substantial conformity. For the CFSR 12-month data period ending March 31, 2007, Ohio did not meet the national standards for the two data indicators relevant for Safety Outcome 1 pertaining to the absence of maltreatment recurrence and the absence of maltreatment of children in foster care by foster parents or facility staff.
So much for ensuring Rifqa's safety and civil rights.
[edit] The court case
LATEST UPDATE: Arresting Rifqa's Rescuers? Criminalizing Christianity in Post-Islamic America
UPDATE: Rifqa Bary's parents and their CAIR-appointed attorney have reneged on the deal for dependency and instead want to go to trial.
UPDATE: A deal was cut in the trial of Rifqa Bary on January 19, 2010. In exchange for pleading guilty to the charge of being "unruly", Rifqa will not have to return home.
In December 2009, government caseworker outlined a plan calling for Rifqa Bary and her parents to listen to each other's views on religion. Read the rest of the Fox News article here, and check out Pamela Geller's commentary here. On December 11, 2009 The Jawa Report posted this information:
In a stunning development in the ongoing legal saga of Muslim-turned-Christian convert Rifqa Bary, the parents' attorney, Omar Tarazi, filed a motion with the Franklin County courts last week moving to ban on all Christmas cards being sent to Rifqa through her attorneys, and demanding the seizure from her of all Christmas cards that she might have already received. And yet her parents still make representations to the media that they intend to honor and respect her Christian faith, while their attorney files sealed motions stating that Christmas cards are "dangerous to her health and safety".
This news and a copy of the motion were provided to me from a source inside CAIR, who noted that CAIR has raised funds for the Bary's legal jihad to have the courts return the 17 year-old to her allegedly abusive Muslim family. According to affidavits filed in the case, Rifqa states that her father threatened to kill her for leaving Islam, which prompted her to flee her Ohio home and take refuge with a pastor and his family in Florida. In an interview with Florida investigators, her father admitted to the incident, but denies threatening her life. The family also attends the terror-tied Noor Islamic Cultural Center in the Columbus area. Both she and the ongoing legal case have since been transferred from Florida back to Ohio.
The court will hear Tarazi's motion for the ban and seizure of all of Rifqa's Christmas cards on December 22nd.The Jawa Report also posted the motion filed with the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas:
IN THE MATTER OF:
FATHIMA RIFQA BARY,
AN ALLEGED DEPENDENT CHILD
Case No. 09 JU 11 14895
Judge: GILL
Magistrate: GOODRICH
MOTION TO ENJOIN COUNSEL FROM PASSING MESSAGES OF THIRD PARTIES DIRECTLY TO THE MINOR CHILD
Wherefore, now come Mohamed Bary and Aysha Risana Bary, the parents of Fathima Rifqa Bary, by and through counsel, Omar Tarazi, and move the Court to enjoin Fathima Rifqa Bary's attorneys from passing messages of third parties directly to the minor child without the approval and supervision of Franklin County Children Services; Petitioner moves the court to order Fathima Rifqa Bary and her attorneys to turn over all such communications in their possession or control to FCCS; that third party adults are not to be allowed to communicate with Fathima Rifqa Bary until an approved list is determined by FCCS after consultation with all parties. This motion is supported by the attached memorandum of law.
Omar Tarazi (0084165) [Address and phone numbers removed]
MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT
1- Certain hate filled sites for bigotry and propaganda are advertising Fathima Rifqa Bary’s attorney, Angela Lloyd address as the approved mean for the readers of the sites to get messages delivered to Fathima Rifqa Bary under the guise of sending her “Christmas Cards.” http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/
2- The particular sites involved have been inciting hatred regarding the current case with such posts as, “Strickland is demented. He knows the fatal record of his Child Services department. Why did he insist that Rifqa be returned? She was perfectly safe and perfectly happy in Florida. Why did this tool of jihad force the hand of Florida? Strickland says a killer is innocent, but Rifqa is guilty of not submitting to the religion of misogyny, gender apartheid and slavery. There is a level of corruption and Islamic influence all the way up to Strickland’s office that is deeply troubling. He’s on their payroll…Are they medicating her [Rifqa Bary] under the “psychiatric evaluation” findings? Who knows? Do the Islamic apologists in the Ohio media even so much as question this fascism? Not a peep.” http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/
3- Allowing the readers of such sites to have a channel of communication to Fathima Rifqa Bary is dangerous to her health and safety. It also undermines the ability of Franklin County Children Services to do its job in supervising and protecting Fathima Rifqa Bary. The GAL for Fathima Rifqa Bary, FCCS and the parents of the minor child have a right to know when third parties are communicating to the minor child particularly when the third parties might endanger the health and safety of the minor child.
4- Therefore, for the safety and security of Fathima Rifqa Bary we ask the court to enjoin Fathima Rifqa Bary’s attorneys from passing messages to their client from third parties and order them to deliver all such communications in their possession or control for Fathima Rifqa Bary that have come from third parties to this action to FCCS and order Fathima Rifqa Bary to turn over any communications in her possession or control she has already received from third parties through her attorneys to FCCS; that third party adults are not to be allowed to communicate with Fathima Rifqa Bary until an approved list is determined by FCCS in consultation with all parties.
Omar Tarazi (0084165)
[Address and phone number removed]The following article is from the Jawa Report:
...and the counselor they demand she attend filed an affidavit in support of Rifqa being held in contempt!
The next episode in the legal battle between Muslim-turned-Christian convert Rifqa Bary and her allegedly abusive parents will occur next Tuesday in an Ohio courtroom. As I reported last Friday, one of the issues that will be heard by the court is a motion by the CAIR-appointed attorney to the Bary parents demanding that all Christmas cards sent to Rifqa be banned, and any cards she has already received be seized. On Monday, we provided clear evidence of CAIR's backstage handling of the media in this case.
Another issue next week will be another motion filed by the Bary parents asking the court to hold Rifqa in contempt for refusing to attend counseling sessions with a Muslim counselor. Amazingly, the counselor that the Bary parents are attempting to force her to see filed a affidavit supporting the parents' motion to hold Rifqa in contempt of court. How could this counselor be remotely neutral?Read the coverage from Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs regarding the conflicting affadavits from Brian Smith (who sounds suspiciously like a dhimmi folding under Islamic pressure) and Blake Lorenze, the pastor who opened his home to Rifqa when she ran away from home this past summer. According to Geller's coverage on January 22, 2010: Alleged Thief Brian Smith Ran a Business out of the Global Revolution Church's PO Box Where Rifqa's Funds Were Robbed -- He Was Opening Lorenz's mail and Forwarding It to CAIR Team
And the latest from the Jawa Report, January 7, 2009:
The CAIR attorney representing the Bary parents in the Rifqa Bary saga has not only committed a major legal blunder, but has perjured himself in motions recently submitted to the Ohio court. In the filings, CAIR attorney Omar Tarazi denied connections to CAIR and to the Ohio terror mosque responsible for pressuring Rifqa's father, Mohamed Bary, prompting the threats to his daughter about her conversion to the Christian faith.
When the case was still in Florida, Rifqa's attorney John Stemberger submitted a 35-page memorandum to the court about the extensive terror ties of the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, the mosque attended by the Bary family. To avoid exposing the Noor Center's radical connections (the mosque's founder and spiritual leader Hany Saqr was identified in documents in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial as one of the top North American leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood and the mosque's former resident scholar Salah Soltan has appeared at events in the Middle East with designated terrorists), any connection between the Noor Center, CAIR and parents' attorneys were repeatedly dismissed in court by the Florida attorney Shayan Elahi. In an appearance on Fox News this week, Elahi lied again about CAIR and Noor's involvement.
Now that CAIR and the Noor Center's major role in this case has been raised again in Ohio, Omar Tarazi has attempted to conceal the connections and directions that both have played in this case, and the obvious conflict of interest presented in Tarazi's attempt to represent the parents while taking direction from CAIR and the Noor Center leadership.
In these recent motions, Tarazi openly lied to the court about CAIR and Noor's involvement in the case, claiming no association with either and denying that they are involved in funding the Bary parents' case. But we can present here exclusive evidence disproving those lies in the form of a Facebook email sent by none other than Noor Center CEO Hany Saqr announcing that Tarazi would be speaking at Eid morning prayers on November 27th:
(See cache of the email here.)
According to three independent sources who were at Tarazi's talk, he not only gave an update on the case, but a collection was taken afterward to finance his client's case. If he is receiving no compensation from this offering, where exactly is the money going that has been raised on several occasions by the mosque specifically for the Bary's defense? In addition, at least one member of the local media was in attendance at his presentation -- an explicit violation of the judge's gag order in the case. Tarazi also forgot to mention in his filings that he is a regular attendee at the terror mosque. No connections, eh?
Two weeks ago we presented here conclusive photographic evidence of CAIR's management of the media in this case. We also noted back in September that CAIR officials were present when Florida investigators interviewed Rifqa's parents (conversely, Rifqa was interrogated alone for three and a half hours without her attorneys present). And back in August when this case first began, we noted from inside sources that CAIR was formulating a media strategy to promote lies about Rifqa and the Florida pastors that received her after her escape from the Bary home.
Why would Omar Tarazi jeopardize his legal career and face possible criminal penalties to continue to cover-up CAIR and the Noor Center's involvement in this case when evidence is already available exposing his lies? Only Tarazi can answer that question. And we hope the judge in this case demands some answers.[edit] See also
[edit] External Links
- Will teen-convert case put Islam on trial in U.S.? - Art Moore - WorldNetDaily, January 19, 2010
- Facebook Muslims ask if Rifqa Bary is the Dajjal, the great deceiver of the Islamic end times - Robert Spencer - Jihad Watch, January 13, 2010
- Facebook fatwa against Rifqa Bary: "Don't save Rifqa Bary Let them to kill her" - Pamela Geller - Atlas Shrugs, January 13, 2010
- Facebook Fatwa on Rifqa (interview with Pam Geller) - Jamie Glazov - FrontPageMagazine.com, January 19, 2010
