Fathima Rifqa Bary Custody Case Becomes Anti-Muslim Circus

The Fathima Rifqa Bary circus in Florida is now shaping up in the tradition of American legal disputes that manage to encapsulate the state of the country at a particular moment. An electric photo essay on the Orlando Sentinal website by Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda parades archetypal tub-thumping attention-grabbers: there’s Alan Kornman of ACT for America waving around a copy of Reliance of the Traveller, a Fourteenth Century manual of Islamic jurisprudence, and pointing out a verse that prescribes death for apostates; meanwhile, Ed and Sandra Warmoth from the “Maccabean Resistance” harangue passersby with placards reading “Know Your Enemy, Know Your Season, Know Your G-d” (the Warmouths are actually Christians, but like an increasingly large swathe of American evangelicals, they prefer to identify vicariously with Jewish cultural expressions and militaristic Zionism than with the historic priorities of Christianity); while Tom Trento of the Florida Security Council gives a press conference. We also see Bary herself poring over a Bible in court; her tearful mother, and the father – a mild looking Westernized Sri Lankan in a suit who, we are to believe, would rather kill his daughter and face the consequences than live with the shame of a daughter who has rejected her Muslim heritage to become a Christian.

Meanwhile, Bary’s attorney, a conservative activist named John Stemberger, is alleging that her family have links to Al Qaeda through their local mosque in Ohio, and that Bary is the victim of “mental, physical and sexual abuse”. Stemberger has also publicised Bary’s parents’ home address; the St. Petersburg Times has a bit of background (link added):

Stemberger is the president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council. Orlando magazine last month called him one of the 50 most powerful people in the city. He’s a leader in Florida’s anti-gay marriage movement and doesn’t believe in teaching evolution “as scientific fact.”

Also part of the story is Governor Charlie Crist, who likes to pander to the  Christian Right. He’s in no mood to appeal for a bit of calm:

I am grateful to Circuit Judge Daniel Dawson for his decision to grant Fathima Rifqa Bary the right to remain in Florida.

The first and only priority of my administration is the safety and wellbeing of this child.

I am grateful for the good work of Department of Children and Families Secretary George Sheldon and my General Counsel, Rob Wheeler, for personally advocating the administration’s position by attending today’s hearing.

We will continue to fight to protect Rifqa’s safety and wellbeing as we move forward.

Curiously, one person is absent from the unfolding drama: Blake Lorenz, the pastor of the neo-Pentecostal Global Revolution Church to which Bary fled after communicating with the church on Facebook. Lorenz is apparently on holiday.

WorldNetDaily has a round-up of exultant conservative punditry on the subject:

[Pamela] Geller said the teen’s case “is a public relations nightmare for Islamist groups, as her plea validates everything that scholars such as Ibn Warraq, Robert Spencer, Dr. Andrew Bostom, Wafa Sultan, etc., have written and said.”

Sultan, a Syrian-born psychiatrist, human rights activist and author, wrote on JihadWatch.org that the case “highlights the danger of creeping jihad in the Western world.”

Dr. Phyllis Chesler, author of “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?” told Fox News Bary’s life will be in danger if she is forced to return to her parents.

“Anyone who converts from Islam is considered an apostate, and apostasy is a capital crime,” she said. “If she is returned to her family, if she is lucky, they will isolate her, beat her, threaten her, and if she is not ‘presuaded’ to return to Islam, they will kill her. They have no choice.”

And so on. Geller claims that she has “been talking to someone who is very close to Rifqa Bary”, who alleges that Bary was regularly beaten.

Also on the bandwagon is W.L. Cati ( whom I blogged here), who explains that

“As far as Muslims are concerned, she should have the death penalty for converting to Christianity…And so even though she is here and appears to be safe, thank God the judge made a good decision as far as her behalf, but what is Islam going to do?”

Cati says she believes the girl is telling the truth based on her own experience of having been married to a Muslim.

WorldNetDaily also notes a news story from Pakistan, which, without any evidence, accuses Bary of promiscuous behaviour and of “conjur[ing] up a story of conversion to Christianity” in the face of parental discipline. WND also carries a photo (from before her flight to Florida) of Bary posing cheerfully with a black American boy of around the same age as her, although the significance of this is unclear.

As I noted in my previous blog entry on this subject, Bary has a strange understanding of what an “honour killing” actually is; she claims it would be a “great honour” for her parents to kill her – but honour killing  (which is rare in Sri Lanka anyway) is about restoring honour which is perceived to have been lost; it’s not about gaining extra merit, as if it were some kind of human sacrifice. Where did she get that idea from? And the formal death penalty for apostasy is a different matter again, with a variety of Islamic opinions about whether it is applicable or not, and if so who has the authority to carry it out. I have no idea what kind of a man Bary’s father is, but it is foolish to claim that a verse from Reliance of the Traveller proves that a Muslim father must kill his daughter, regardless of any paternal feeling and heedless of both the law (in either the USA or Sri Lanka) and of his own imprisonment (and in Ohio, execution) which would invariably follow.

44 Responses

  1. That is what it’s supposed to be, an anti-muslim circus. Because islam needs to be pushed back by all means within the framework of rule and order.

    • Its called brainwashing and lying.

      • Why most Muslims I know are more concerned with the shame of exposure of their evil, instead of getting rid of their evil? Is it because their belief is founded on core evil and they don’t want to admit it? How many merciful God, or gods we know, want to see innocent people get killed? When Jihad or terrorists shouting God is great and merciful. are they shouting for allah or Jesus Christ?
        None of Jesus’ disciples killed anybody. But Mohammed himself and all his disciples killed innocent people for being no-followers of Mohamed or Islam in the name of Jihad.

        The spirit of deceptiong possesed Muslims so tightly that they rather believe in lies than facing the truth that shakes the core of their life style..

  2. […] on White House Santeria Rumour Created by Conservative BloggerKafir Harby on Fathima Rifqa Bary Custody Case Becomes Anti-Muslim CircusFathima Rifqa Bary Custody Case Becomes Anti-Muslim Circus « Bartholomew’s Notes on […]

  3. It’s nice to see someone else online who isn’t rabidly Christian. I have a Google alert set up for all things Rifqa related and so far everything else has been anti-Islam ranting.

  4. Wonder who’d want Muslims and Christians to be at each other’s throats?

    Who would benefit from those two religions slugging it out, literally and figuratively, until both sides were exhausted and too weak to carry on?

    • Extremists within the traditions are quite capable of whipping things up for themselves, no need for a conspiracy theory.

  5. What the Western and AmericAn publics haven’t yet learned is that ALL four schools of Islamic jurisprudence call for the death penalty for apostasy.

    That is not some ill-founded ‘islamopobic’ rumor, but instead is FACT.

    Magdi Allam, one of Italy’s finest journalists and a Muslim convert to Christianity who is under police protection 24/7, could perhaps fill Mr Bartholomew in.

    Rifka Barry’s father beloings to an extremist mosque. An imam and several members of that mosque were arrested, tried and convicted of involment with some very nasty islamists. Were she to be sent back to such a *pious* family, there’s a very good chance she’ll be killed.

    It’s amazing that poeple still haven’t awoken to the numbers of ex-Muslims who live under threat of death.

    Lastly, why are people calling this a media circus?
    The MSM has largely ignored the story, preferring to simply avoid the whole subject of apostasy from Islam out of fear and cowardice

    • Well, alot of religions say alot of things and call on their followers to do alot of things, but that doesn’t mean they do it.

      Besides, how many of these converts are real, and how many just want a quick way to get asylum/citizenship?

  6. Well, alot of religions say alot of things and call on their followers to do alot of things, but that doesn’t mean they do it.

    Sigh. So we should take the chance her family won’t kill her and return her to them? And if she shows up dead a month from now we can just greet the news with an indifferent; “oh well, not all Muslims do that, so it’s OK”.

    Besides, how many of these converts are real, and how many just want a quick way to get asylum/citizenship?

    Sigh. Rifka Bary IS an American citizen and her conversion happened more than two years ago and, I’m sure, is quite legitimate. I know several converts from Islam and none did it for any reasons other than the faith of their convictions

    Freedom of conscience is fundsamental right, and it’s strange how converts to Islam are feted whereas muslim converts to Christianity are vilified, described as “brainwashed” and even murdered.

    • Sigh, your post doesn’t really answer what I wrote.

      Sigh, many people will lie to get asylum and green cards/citizenships, as my point was not about her specifically, but about other “converts” that people like you are so worried about.

      Sigh, besides, it’s already quite clear that this girl is lying.

      Sigh, but don’t let that come ion the way of your craziness.

      Sigh away, June, sigh away.

  7. You just can’t imagine that someone like Rifka WANTS to be a Christian, can you? This girl isn’t lying. She converted to Christianity by her own free will more than two years ago. And the spate of ‘honor’ killings in both Europe and America should give the judge cause for caution.

    Rifka Barry is very problematic for both islamists and their leftwing apologists. They have no choice but to cast her as either a ‘liar’ as some cheap spoiled floozy with discipline problems. But she is only one of many Muslims who’ve abandonned Islam for Christianity, and since I believe in freedom of conscience, I support her!.

    • To June,

      And why are you sop quick to believe her?

      Did you read what her lawyer is now saying on her family?:
      “Bary’s attorney, a conservative activist named John Stemberger, is alleging that her family have links to Al Qaeda through their local mosque in Ohio, and that Bary is the victim of ‘mental, physical and sexual abuse’. ”

      So demonizing her family, their faith, just for attention and probably a book deal.

      She’s obviously an idiot. Read what she says: “she is the the first Christian in her family for ‘150 generations’ ”

      “150 generations”? She counted them? Besides, Islam doens’t go back this long in Arabia, let alone in Sri Lanka.

      I’m not saying there aren’t legitimate cases os people killed for converting, but this doesn’t seem like one of them.

  8. Let me put this straight. Apostacy, like treason, is a capital crime in Islamic law but it is not as simple as some of these loons make it sound. Average Muslims – according to the consensus of Muslim scholars of jurisprudence – don’t have the right to take legal matters into their own hands, hence they are not sanctioned under Islamic law to go around killing people who have left Islam.

    The issue of apostacy has to be placed in its context, i.e. the existence of islamic law as the supreme law of the land and a Islamic court headed by an Islamic judge giving out a sentence. The sentence would be carried out by the government. It could be appealed … oh and don’t forget that not all apostates face the death penalty, women for example are given much leeway. They are given time to change their mind. Some are even banished, etc. … basically it’s not as simple as it’s being made to look. Basically all of this pretty irrelevant to the American context because America has it’s own laws.

  9. oh and don’t forget that not all apostates face the death penalty, women for example are given much leeway. They are given time to change their mind. Some are even banished, etc

    Oh! So it’s ok then? You’re an apologist for all of these coercive and intimidating measures designed to keep people imprisoned in a belief system they no longer accept.

    And by saying that “not all” apostates face the death penalty, you admit that some actually do, so in this case how can we be sure Rifka’s family won’t bump her off?

    Honor killings are quite common, target mostly muslim women, a dispossed group, and can be carried out not just for outright apostasy, but also for becoming too secular/westernised.

    Remember the wife of the president of Bridges T.V., a network designed to show Islam in a positive light to non-Muslims?

    She sought to divorce her husband and he reacted by killing her and then hacking her head off afterwards, and he did so in order to, in his own words, “restore his honor”. The punishments America’s law system mete out for murder don’t even enter into the portrait here.

    • We know these terrible things go on, and that in any situation where a child alleges a threat from a parent the authorities are in a difficult position. However, there are reasons to be cautious about this particular case. Why does Rikfa have such a weird understanding of “honour killing”? Why is this being conflated with the formal traditional punishment for apostasy? Is it really likely that the mother gave a tearful performance just to collude in a plot to kill her?

      The rhetoric from Pamela Geller is extremely unhelpful; recently she has called for an Orlando Sentinel columnist to be “charged with incitement to violent honor killing”, simply because he suggested the case ought to be heard in Ohio and also raised some reasonable doubts. Geller is not someone who cares about the truth of the matter; this is someone who is drunk on the power of incendiary language to bully and browbeat. She’s an archetypal demagogue – anyone who questions a witchfinder is themselves a witch, anyone who defends an alleged communist is themselves a communist. Such people have never had a positive impact on any situation in which they have chosen to involve themselves.

  10. I don’t take my marching orders from Pamel Geller, but it should be said that she wrangled a monument for Aqsa Parvez, a girl killed by her ‘menfolk’and burried in an unmarked grave not worthy of even a pet. She had been lured back to her family by her mother’s tearful pleading.

    In kingston Ontario, in June 2009, 4 women ( one women, 3 teenagers) all belonging to the same family were found in their car at the bottom of a seaway lock. The authorities were at first mystified, but as the info slowly came out is was discovered that the teens had westernised and that the oldest ( 19) had been dating a non-Muslim. Neighbours told of family rows, fights and disagreements and told authorities that one of the teens had spent time on the run.

    A sister of the adult women, presently living in France, contacted Canadian authorities and told them her sister whom, it turns out, was actually the first wife, had contacted her to say she was worried that the father, elder brother and second wife would harm them.

    When that news broke, the father, elder brother and second wife hightailed it to the airport ( Montréal) and werre nabbed by authorities barely an hour before they were to board a plane for Pakistan.

    Off topic, but of interest. Remember the Montréal massacres in Dec. 1989 when a crazed gunmen killed 14 female university students? The media gave his name as Marc Lepine, but that wasn’t his real identity. His name was Hasan and he’d been born to an Algerian father ( a serial wife beater who put no less that 6 women in intensive care) and a French Canadian mother. Marc had changed his name ( ‘Hasan’ was on his drivers permit, medicare card and apart. lease) and had become ‘pious’ and had reverted to the religion of his dad. He had drawn up a whole list of ‘slags’ he wanted to bump off.

    When the first reports came out ,the media referred to him by his arab name, but since this happened not long after the Rushdie affair, they soon changed it to back to Marc Lepine because it made things so much more sanitary and easy to deal with.

    • The media gave his name as Marc Lepine, but that wasn’t his real identity. His name was Hasan and he’d been born to an Algerian father

      His original name was “Gamil Rodrigue Gharbi”, not “Hasan”. His father was by all accounts secular. Plus there’s no evidence of any Islamic belief in his suicide note. Perhaps you think David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz tells us something about Jews.

  11. What does the Bible say about apostacy:

    Deuteronomy 13:6-9 “If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying: Let us go and worship other gods (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other, or gods of other religions), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. YOU MUST CERTAINLY PUT HIM TO DEATH. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people.”

    Deuteronomy 17:3-5 “And he should go and worship other gods and bow down to them or to the sun or the moon or all the army of the heavens, …..AND YOU MUST STONE SUCH ONE WITH STONES AND SUCH ONE MUST DIE.”

  12. […] Posted on August 31, 2009 by Richard Bartholomew The Rifqa Bary bandwagon shows no sign of losing steam, with various conservative groups and outfits using the opportunity […]

  13. Thank you John for the quote from the Bible.

    Could you now tell us how many Christians have been killed in the last year for leaving Christianity?

    And you could you hazard a guess at how many Muslims have been killed in the same period for leaving Islam?

    It’s not just about ancient scriptures, it’s about how they are used today.

    There is, possibly, a life at stake here.

    Marcus

    • To Marcus:

      Your post ignores one important fact, namely that the reason why apostates to Christianity are not killed, is not because Christianity itself has changed.but rather because the West is now secular and no longer follows Christian laws decidedly.

      In other words, the (often extremist) secularist forces that have “De-Christianized” the West over the past 200 years, are the main reason why such things aren’t happening anymore in the West/Europe.

      • Yes, but the point is, such things most decidedly ARE happening in the Islamic world, including – sadly – among Muslims here in the west.

        Quoting the Old Testament (as if that in some way has a bearing on this particular case) does nothing for this poor girl, or for others like her afraid to change religion or in other ways go against the faith of her parents.

  14. @ John Yes! Deuteronomy ( and Leviticus on homosexuality), are always invoked to erect some straw-man equivalence between Islam and Christianity. All four schools of Islamic jurispurdence call for the death penalty for apostasy, whereas nowhere in The New Testament do such injunctions exist. So please, stuff a sock in it.

    @ Mr Batholomew ,you’re quite right that “Marc Lepoine” wasn’t Marc Lepine at all and so my question is this: why, then, did the media ASSIGN (retroactively, by the way) a Judeo-Christian moniker to someone who no longer used it? According to some early reports, reports that used his real name, on the night of those massacres “Marc Lepine” roamed the corridor’s of the Université de Montréal screaming; “Allah akbar”! That little detail was ignored because at the time no one even knew what it meant.

    And the young man had indeed become very “pious” , frequented a certain Montréal mosque, and recited the five daily prayers, but if you want to apologise for his actions and maintain the ridiculous ( and dangerous) fiction that islam had nothing to do with either the murders he committed or with his over the top misogyny, then be my guest.

    Everything about that episode some 20 years ago has been sanitised.

    And as for his father? The man was a violent serial wife-beater who put roughly a half-douzen women in intensive care ( before finally being deported) and who viewed Western women as loose slags. Now those attitudes, I must stress are NOT the fault of Islam, they are the unfortunate results of privation, bigotry, racism and islamophobia, you see.

    ‘Marc Lepine’s’ fatherwas not at all an aggressor, he was a VICTIM.

  15. And remember Jesus,the Lord and God, himself reformed many teaching in the old testament. Remember how Jesus saved the prostitute about to be stoned? Know what Jesus taught about mercy, love and compassion?

    Jesus even nullified the law of Moses about divorce. Thus christianity is all about love and compassion…

  16. I run Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionist Israel, and I noticed the Rifqa Bary case because I have been studying the involvement of Tom Trento and friends in Islamophobic incitement in Europe. These people tend to leave a lot of ruined lives in their wake. I am reminded of Edgardo Mortara. Just as that case was not really about Edgardo, this case is not really about Rifqa.

    The Historical Truth

    “Salme (later known as Emily Ruete; 1844-1924) was the daughter of the Sultan of Zanzibar. After his death she participated in an ill-fated conspiracy for control of the island, then fled to Germany and married Heinrich Rudolph Buete.*” She converted to Christianity on the way to Germany in the English Christian Church at Aden. Nineteen years later Emily Ruete returned to Zanzibar with a German mission. She writes (on pp. 295-297 of the Ghani translation) in her memoirs:

    When I arrived at Zanzibar I was doubtful of the reception I should meet with there, but confident, too, that my brother would not delay in carrying out the expressed wishes of Germany, and I was not mistaken. He would, at all events, out of respect for Germany, tolerate me. But the bad treatment that my other brothers and sisters had experienced at his hands could hardly lead me to expect any friendly advances on his part; and, as for the rest of the inhabitants, it gives me the greatest pleasure to state that they gave me tokens of their kindly feelings only. Arabs, Hindoos, Banyans, and natives repeatedly entreated me to remain in Zanzibar for good, which could only strengthen my belief that there was no religious aversion felt to me. One day I met two Arabs, with whom I entered into conversation. Hearing from a third person that they were relations of mine — I had not recognized them — I told them afterwards. I should not have addressed them had I been aware of this, as I knew my relations were not all inclined to be friends with me. But they both replied at once that, whatever happened, they could never forget that I was the daughter of my father.And when I touched upon the religious question, one of them said “this fate had been destined to me from the beginning of the world.” “The God who has served you and us from our home is the same God whom all men adore and revere. His mighty will has brought you back to us, and we all rejoice at it. And now you and your children will stay with us henceforth, will you not?” Proofs of affection and love like these, and the deep and indescribable joy of beholding my native land once more, will always associate that voyage with some of the sweetest hours of my life. But an hour for parting came at last and found me oh! so loath to say a long farewell once more to the few but very dear friends I had still. They fully shared my grief, and perhaps I could convey its expression best to my readers, and thereby put a fitting close to my book, by giving the English rendering of a letter that they jointly sent to me after I had reached Germany again. But its sweet tenderness and originality I cannot reproduce: —

    You went from us without a word at parting; This has torn my heart, and filled my soul with sorrow. O! that I had clung to your neck when you departed hence, You might have sat on my head, and walked on my eyes! You live in my heart, and when you went You poured grief into my soul such as I ne’er felt before; My body is wasted, and my tears fall fast One after one down my cheek like the waves of the sea. O Lord of the universe, let us meet again ere we die! Be it only one single day before death. If we live, we meet again; When we are dead, the Immortal One remains! O! that I were a bird to soar to thee on wings of love; But how can the bird soar whose wings are clipped?

    Note

    * Summary from the back cover of Memoirs of an Arabian Princess from Zanzibar written by Emilie Ruete in German and translated by Rula Ghani. The complete Lionel Strachey translation of the German edition is available online as is another translation by an unidentified translator. The above text come from my blog entry entitled Executing Apostates: Christianity, Islam, Judaism.

  17. The media harps so much about the threat to Rifqa. Little do they investigate into the nature of the father who she says threatened him. Everythings she says goes in without a dout but when a father honestly wants his daughter back it’s temed “extremist”, “lies”, etc. Just because previous cases were true does that mean this case has to be judged on them? What familiarity is there between those fathers and Rifqa’s father. He came all the way from Sri Lanka to America to bring vision to his daughter’s injured eye and that says a lot about the affection of this father to his daughter!

  18. […] will be safe at home. Whom to believe? ______________________________________ Googgle news Fathima Rifqa Bary Custody Case Becomes Anti-Muslim Circus Posted on August 22, 2009 by Richard Bartholomew The Fathima Rifqa Bary circus in Florida is now […]

  19. Why do muslim apologists try to decieve every one by smoke and mirrors by saying apostacy is complicated. No it is not .prophet said aif any one leaves islam kill him. You anounce publicly that Moahmmed was not a prophet and see a mob kill you in a hurry.

  20. I don’t have any horses in this race but I can’t believe the number of posters who are writing off Rifqa Bary as a liar based mainly on their dislike of the Christians involved, her slightly mangled syntax in describing honour killings, and hearsay about her “mild mannered” father. Nobody here can know the truth of what went on in that household, however we do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that, unlike those despicable Christian homes where the girls’ biggest problems are usually related to the curtailing of their freedoms, there is at at least some risk of harm coming to this girl from the religious beliefs of her male relatives. [If you don’t believe this, go to Geller’s website and see the photo gallery of dozens of girls who did meet that fate….and check out their the amazing coincidence of all their last names, their hair colour, and their murderers. If there is any risk at all, who on earth would begrudge giving a 17-year old girl the benefit of the doubt and the ability to choose her own path? The only thing I don’t understand is why her useless lawyers can’t just apply for emancipation and let her get on with her life. Btw have you seen the latest facebook fatwas against her ….no risk to her there either, is there?

  21. […] supporters, including the vile Pamela Geller, who with others has used the Bary story to whip up an anti-Muslim hysteria. Geller lashes out viciously against anyone who raises any question or urges caution regarding […]

  22. […] Christmas, he designed a Christmas card for Geller’s readers to print out and send to Rifqa Bary, the ex-Muslim teenager who claims that her Muslim parents want to kill her and who is currently in […]

  23. […] Christmas, he designed a Christmas card for Geller’s readers to print out and send to Rifqa Bary, the ex-Muslim teenager who claims that her Muslim parents want to kill her and who is currently in […]

  24. […] were making nice together at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend on a round table about Rifqa Bary; in 2008 Bostom was commending “My colleague and friend, the gifted and remarkably courageous […]

  25. […] (not Muslim), and women have civil rights. There was reason for caution, but Chesler was happy to jump on an increasingly hysterical […]

  26. […] Bary Seriously Ill with Cancer Posted on May 26, 2010 by Richard Bartholomew The Rifqa Bary circus has taken an unexpectedly tragic twist, with an announcement on Facebook from Jamal Jivanjee, the […]

  27. […] Pieder isn’t just a keyboard warrior; we read from March that he had an encounter with Rifqa Bary, the teenage ex-Muslim: 17-year-old Rifqa Bary stood outside courtroom 63 at the Franklin County […]

  28. […] The Rifqa Bary case, with which Geller and Spencer have been involved, quickly degenerated into a circus and something of a […]

  29. I think the reason why they “begrudge giving a 17-year old girl the benefit of the doubt and the ability to choose her own path” is because she wants to ‘choose her own path’ by throwing her family in jail on false charges.

    The government investigation and found Rifqa’s story of ‘escape’ to be entirely false (she did not hitchhike in the middle of the night and bought a ticket to Orlando with her own money – she went to a friend’s house where the pastor she had been meeting for weeks gave her tickets that were purchased by the church she was going to, and then gave her a ride to the bus stop), as well as other details like claiming her father had no idea she was a cheerleader despite giving her rides to cheerleading practice, and that he would kill her if he knew. (The father showed them pictures of her in cheerleading clothes on his cell phone, and on the living room table) and that she sought haven with a teacher not because her father threatened to ‘honor kill’ her but because she didn’t like her older brother’s beer parties that their parents allowed.

  30. […] Jivanjee, one of the pastors close to Rifqa Bary in Ohio, has made a Facebook posting entitled “4 Vital & Hidden Truths that Rifqa […]

  31. […] is of the Devil” sign outside his church, and members of the congregation joined the Rifqa Barycircus while wearing t-shirts bearing the same message. His planned Koran bonfire for 11 September has […]

  32. […] Posted on January 27, 2011 by Richard Bartholomew A rare public statement from Rifqa Bary, who has been off the public radar for a while: Would you please help my friend and lawyer John […]

  33. […] Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion: Rifqa Madness; Fathima Rifqa Bary Custody Case Becomes Anti-Muslim Circus; Pastor Blake Lorenz: Former Church Board “Demonically Possessed”; Apocalyptic Pastor […]

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