After going through the well dramatized talk by Rifqa here are some observations and comments by a viewer:
1- She was fully dressed for the occasions
2- She was fully rehearsed by whoever was beside her
3- She sure looked very very artificial
4- Her repeated quotes and recital of Bible indicate she is playing for the gallery but surely she was not the type to be intellectually mature enough to explore the virtues of "enlightenment's"
5- Her body language shows that she has some other aim and objectives in her mind
6- When she made up her mind through her wisdom (as she claims) of renouncing Islam is one thing but her intellect is not at all adequate enough to criticise Islam and its teaching.
7- As far as Rifqa is concerned, she chose her own destiny and she sure shall witness to her own doing sooner or later. FOR THE TIME BEING SHE IS TRULY ENJOYING THE PUBLIC ATTENTION AND SHE FEEL SHE HAS BECOME A CELEBRITY. THE QUESTION IS FOR HOW LONG ?
8- The media will keep on harping on the issue and rest be assured they are not going to spare Rifqa's family members.
9- They will keep the subject alive as this has given the Christian world a extremely useful tool to hurt the sentiments Muslims world over.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Whose Life Is In Real Jeopardy?
The media is hyped up about the threat to Rifqa's life by her parents. They say that should she return to Ohio and be killed by her fathter then the Governor of Florida should be responsible for that crime. Well said!
Now what about the health and safety of Rifqa's parents? The pressure that this issue is causing her parents is unquestionably high. So what if something should happen to her father or her mother? Then who is going to be responsible for that?
Rifqa - it's a miracle that your father and mother didn't get a heart attack or colapse with the turn of events. Do you think YOU can live with it, IF something happened to them because of all the exposure that YOU have caused? Is it fair by them that they have to first suffer the disappearance of you, and then be exposed to media vultures who are drooling to disclose their personal lives?
If you wanted to follow Christianity then BE IT! But do so in a way that doesn't harm anyone. Least of all your parents and your two brothers! You think you are in danger? What a joke that is! The whole of USA is rallying behind you now and SAYING they will protect you! Christians are praying for you and calling you a martyr of true belief.
Well tell us something, Is Christianity a religion that says you have to hurt your parents and your kin? Does it say that you should bring a whole lot of lies and media to follow it?
There are many ways to do what is right. But a very few ways to do what is wrong. You happened to choose the latter one!
The problem is not that you chose to convert from Islam to Christianity. It's in THE WAY that you did it. Your father, mother and elder brother knew you became a Christian FOUR months ago! Still they didn't kill you. You baptized in the local church in mid July - Still they didn't kill you! So what happened on the 19th of July? Your mother only said she will tell your father because she found your Christian Prayer Book. The next thing we know you have disappeared and not only that your mobile is swiched off and your facebook account is deactivated! Also added to the fact is that you didn't have money to travel BUT you DISAPPEARED!
If your parents wanted to kill you they wouldn't have put the entire police they can find to search you. They wouldn't have reported you missing. Do you know why? Because it's easier to kill a missing person than a person searched by all bureaus in the police.
Now what about the health and safety of Rifqa's parents? The pressure that this issue is causing her parents is unquestionably high. So what if something should happen to her father or her mother? Then who is going to be responsible for that?
Rifqa - it's a miracle that your father and mother didn't get a heart attack or colapse with the turn of events. Do you think YOU can live with it, IF something happened to them because of all the exposure that YOU have caused? Is it fair by them that they have to first suffer the disappearance of you, and then be exposed to media vultures who are drooling to disclose their personal lives?
If you wanted to follow Christianity then BE IT! But do so in a way that doesn't harm anyone. Least of all your parents and your two brothers! You think you are in danger? What a joke that is! The whole of USA is rallying behind you now and SAYING they will protect you! Christians are praying for you and calling you a martyr of true belief.
Well tell us something, Is Christianity a religion that says you have to hurt your parents and your kin? Does it say that you should bring a whole lot of lies and media to follow it?
There are many ways to do what is right. But a very few ways to do what is wrong. You happened to choose the latter one!
The problem is not that you chose to convert from Islam to Christianity. It's in THE WAY that you did it. Your father, mother and elder brother knew you became a Christian FOUR months ago! Still they didn't kill you. You baptized in the local church in mid July - Still they didn't kill you! So what happened on the 19th of July? Your mother only said she will tell your father because she found your Christian Prayer Book. The next thing we know you have disappeared and not only that your mobile is swiched off and your facebook account is deactivated! Also added to the fact is that you didn't have money to travel BUT you DISAPPEARED!
If your parents wanted to kill you they wouldn't have put the entire police they can find to search you. They wouldn't have reported you missing. Do you know why? Because it's easier to kill a missing person than a person searched by all bureaus in the police.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Rifqa's False Claims!
Rifqa's parents got to know of her change in faith 4 months ago. They knew she got baptized in mid July. If the claim that her father threatened to kill her with an "Honor Killing" was true then they would have done it by this time. They need not wait for 4 months for that! The talk of Honor Killing was not mentioned when she was living with them or else her friends surely would have known that, don't you think?
If she was really threatened what would a 17 year old girl living in USA with common sense do? She would have called 911! But has Rifqa ever done that? No. So then where actually do you get the idea that her father threatened her with an Honor Killing? This talk came only after she ran away from home.
On the day that Rifqa disappeared her father was not at home. So how could he have threatened her? Only her mother was at home and Rifqa had an argument with her when her Christian Prayer book was found out. There was no evidence to say that her life was threatened. So why runaway at such a moment when her father wasn't even there?
When she ran away her mobile phone was switched off and her facebook account deactivated. Was such an act necessary? Doesn't this show that her facebook account will have evidence of the influence that the so called Global Revolution Church has on her? If the pastor Blake Lorenz was an honest person he should be standing next to Rifqa right now and giving this so called "Threatened Girl" his support and protection. But instead he has vanished and is "Holidaying" somewhere, and no one can reach him!
IF Rifqa's father was an extremist and fundamentalist like "the media" claim him to be, then he would have been a person with a "beard" and "mustache". Instead you find a clean shaven man who dresses in western clothes! Not only that he had allowed Rifqa to have her own laptop and access to various websites! Even more he allows her to go out and meet friends and how other wise did she attend church and christian prayer meetings? He had not insisted on Rifqa wearing the "Hijab" which any conventional muslim father would have inposed on his daughter. Rifqa proudly claims to be a cheerleader. Will a father of a violent nature with fundamentalist ideas allow his daughter to wear a cheerleading outfit and prance around in front of hundreds of people? Certainly not!
The media should try to first find out who and what her family is before labelling names on to them! The people or media who claim "this" or "that" don't even know the tone of his voice or the nature of his ideas!!!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Ann Marie Smith and The Xenos Christian Fellowship!
This is the story of a mother who lost her son to the same group that Rifqa was also involved in.
I want my son back! By parentsagainstxenos
My name is Annemarie and I am the mother of Tom. I love this child more than anything else in my life. I would die for him. He is a warm, loving, caring, giving human being. But most of all my best friend. His father and I are so proud of all his accomplishments and even his failures have proved he will never stop trying to be better. At 18 he is a man for older men to look up to.
After our recent move to Stow, Ohio where we thought we would find a better, safer life for our children than in Akron where we were living previously, my son made his first new friend at Kimpton Junior High School in Stow, Ohio. This is were our hell began. This friend invited Tom to his Dad’s Bible study at their home. We are Catholics but I have always been willing to let my kids participate with their friends at their church functions. Thinking it made you a more tolerant human being by understanding other people’s religion. But first I wanted to meet this “DAD” and be sure this was not a cult or anything I deemed inappropriate. Little did I know I was right on with my first instinct. So we meant with ************** and he managed to have all the right answers, telling us this was no different than the Catholic religion other than they do not believe in confession and do not have a church. But all the same basic teachings were the same. This is interesting because later on we will find that ****** has a whole speech he does about “those Catholics”. The majority of the people in the group were in high school, Stow Munroe Falls High School, and college, Akron University and his main focus was to keep kids off the streets and to make a group of friends that would be together and keep each other from trouble.We let him go. He loved it. He made friends. But never wanted to really share what it was they discussed. But I felt he would let me know if he felt uncomfortable.
Tom is not your average kid, he never has been. He is younger than anyone in his class. yet much wiser and smarter than most kids older than him. He is very mature. He has always been on the honor roll, he was in the post secondary program at the high school and had an honors schoarship lined up for college. His dream was to be an astonaut. He was amazing and we were so proud of him.
About a year ago at age 17 we began to notice some changes in him and were concerned about their cause and tried to talk to him about these changes. He was very evasive and just reassured us that everything was fine. But the warning signs were all there, weight loss, loss of interest, nothing much to say, not wanting to spend time with family, never home, grades dropping, fighting with siblings, loss of affection and kindness. But the most noticeable was his speaking as if reading from a script and sometimes questions were answered simply by saying I can’t answer that right now. He also informed us that he wanted to be baptized in his “new” church. I was mortified. I had failed in my religion and also my son. Catholics must promise to raise their children also in the Catholic faith, I have always held that dear to my heart and this news just caught me off guard. He wanted to be baptized at the Xenos Christian Fellowship, they have no church so I assume it is in someone’s basement. We said no, that he was baptized already and this was not going to happen. The subject was dropped but his behavior became worse and the lies were piling up. But it didn’t stop there he began telling us that it made him to sad to be here knowing that we were going to burn in hell for our religous beliefs and sins of our flesh. What church would teach this to their children? I contacted everyone I could think of for help and support but found very little.
Shortly after Tom’s 18th Birthday on August 5th he invites us to attend his Baptism, when we refused an argument quickly erupted. He told us that he could not feel as close and connected to us as he does the church people, and he could not have relationships that were not centered around his church and “his God”. He told us that he was not going back to college and he was moving out, that he needed time to build his relationship with God. A member of the church helped him get a summer internship at Nasa, so that he would have the money to break these family ties. And that is exactly what happened, he was ridding himself of his wordly things and focusing only on Godly things. He carries on like a madman about society being evil and depraved, yet informs us that now he wants to be a police officer. This is the most heartbreaking thing you have ever seen.
Through much investigation and effort we have been able to figure out how this happened and how ************ brainwashing of these kids works. The older college kids get their siblings at the high school and junior high to seek outkids that will be candidates for them. Kids like Tom who was new to the area with no friends yet, kids from single parent families, kids who have no friends or support system at home, poor kids or kids who just didn’t fit in somehow. Once they get these kids to the “bible study” which is more like a party with pizza, games, scavenger hunts. They build a deep trust over a long period of time. They make it fun to be there and trust is slowly building. I know this sounds totally out there but I missed all these signs for four years and hind sight being what it is, I hate myself for missing them all this time. I am so fortunate to have always been a stay at home mom, here all the time. I have a hard working husband who spent all his free time with me and the kids. Honestly our life seemed perfect, I thought we had the perfect family and had strong family values. It is very frightening how quickly your family can change. Ours caused by one horrible, evil man. He has even let run aways move into his home, nothing is to low for this man.
In August the members took a group of kids from the high school on a camping trip. Some of these girls were 13 and 14 years old. Out camping with college boys. I know there were no sexual things going on as they are supposed to save it for marriage and I beleive Tom would never participate in anything like that. But these kids were their being brainwashed, groomed if you will for their future with this cult.
********** is a very smooth operator and has this plan so carefully worked out and everyone versed on what they are doing and what their job is. I honestly can not believe that his wife does not see or simply just does not care what he is doing to families all over Stow. Groups of girls from this cult have put up terrible hate websites and as soon as it was found out they were quickly taken down. This man is evil and charades as a loving, caring man who just has a personal calling to keep kids off the streets. Believe me I will be the first to admit that I loved telling people that my teenager was at bible study and at church on saturday night and sledding and camping with a church group. I was so proud to be able to tell everyone what a great teenager I had. I am so ashamed, so sad and so sorry that I failed my son and my family.
For now I have lost my son, he is gone, he has moved out of our home and into ***** the prophets control. I have to believe that someday my son will wake up from this nightmare and come home. He will get tired of giving all that he has and all that he earns to this idiot. I do believe this will happen, I have to. I also believe our family values and love are stronger than anything ******* has to offer him.
But my hope in all this is to save another teenager or unsuspecting parent from going through what I have gone through. Be careful know who your kids are with and where they are at. Even better do what I regret failing to do GO THERE!!!! See where they will be, who they will be with and exactly what they will be hearing. Ask questions and demand answers. I did all these things and was still violated by another type of child predator. And this predator is just as dangerous as any other. I will never stop fighting for my son and to break up this “CULT”. I refuse from this point on to call it anything but that. This is what it is and it is taking our children and more people need to care. Right now the pain is unmeasurable for myself, my husband and my other children. We are suffering a great loss, our son, our brother and our friend TOM.
If anyone wants someone to talk to, please contact me. If you are in this situation now, please get your child out of it. If you have something to add, please do.
Annemarie Smith
I want my son back! By parentsagainstxenos
My name is Annemarie and I am the mother of Tom. I love this child more than anything else in my life. I would die for him. He is a warm, loving, caring, giving human being. But most of all my best friend. His father and I are so proud of all his accomplishments and even his failures have proved he will never stop trying to be better. At 18 he is a man for older men to look up to.
After our recent move to Stow, Ohio where we thought we would find a better, safer life for our children than in Akron where we were living previously, my son made his first new friend at Kimpton Junior High School in Stow, Ohio. This is were our hell began. This friend invited Tom to his Dad’s Bible study at their home. We are Catholics but I have always been willing to let my kids participate with their friends at their church functions. Thinking it made you a more tolerant human being by understanding other people’s religion. But first I wanted to meet this “DAD” and be sure this was not a cult or anything I deemed inappropriate. Little did I know I was right on with my first instinct. So we meant with ************** and he managed to have all the right answers, telling us this was no different than the Catholic religion other than they do not believe in confession and do not have a church. But all the same basic teachings were the same. This is interesting because later on we will find that ****** has a whole speech he does about “those Catholics”. The majority of the people in the group were in high school, Stow Munroe Falls High School, and college, Akron University and his main focus was to keep kids off the streets and to make a group of friends that would be together and keep each other from trouble.We let him go. He loved it. He made friends. But never wanted to really share what it was they discussed. But I felt he would let me know if he felt uncomfortable.
Tom is not your average kid, he never has been. He is younger than anyone in his class. yet much wiser and smarter than most kids older than him. He is very mature. He has always been on the honor roll, he was in the post secondary program at the high school and had an honors schoarship lined up for college. His dream was to be an astonaut. He was amazing and we were so proud of him.
About a year ago at age 17 we began to notice some changes in him and were concerned about their cause and tried to talk to him about these changes. He was very evasive and just reassured us that everything was fine. But the warning signs were all there, weight loss, loss of interest, nothing much to say, not wanting to spend time with family, never home, grades dropping, fighting with siblings, loss of affection and kindness. But the most noticeable was his speaking as if reading from a script and sometimes questions were answered simply by saying I can’t answer that right now. He also informed us that he wanted to be baptized in his “new” church. I was mortified. I had failed in my religion and also my son. Catholics must promise to raise their children also in the Catholic faith, I have always held that dear to my heart and this news just caught me off guard. He wanted to be baptized at the Xenos Christian Fellowship, they have no church so I assume it is in someone’s basement. We said no, that he was baptized already and this was not going to happen. The subject was dropped but his behavior became worse and the lies were piling up. But it didn’t stop there he began telling us that it made him to sad to be here knowing that we were going to burn in hell for our religous beliefs and sins of our flesh. What church would teach this to their children? I contacted everyone I could think of for help and support but found very little.
Shortly after Tom’s 18th Birthday on August 5th he invites us to attend his Baptism, when we refused an argument quickly erupted. He told us that he could not feel as close and connected to us as he does the church people, and he could not have relationships that were not centered around his church and “his God”. He told us that he was not going back to college and he was moving out, that he needed time to build his relationship with God. A member of the church helped him get a summer internship at Nasa, so that he would have the money to break these family ties. And that is exactly what happened, he was ridding himself of his wordly things and focusing only on Godly things. He carries on like a madman about society being evil and depraved, yet informs us that now he wants to be a police officer. This is the most heartbreaking thing you have ever seen.
Through much investigation and effort we have been able to figure out how this happened and how ************ brainwashing of these kids works. The older college kids get their siblings at the high school and junior high to seek outkids that will be candidates for them. Kids like Tom who was new to the area with no friends yet, kids from single parent families, kids who have no friends or support system at home, poor kids or kids who just didn’t fit in somehow. Once they get these kids to the “bible study” which is more like a party with pizza, games, scavenger hunts. They build a deep trust over a long period of time. They make it fun to be there and trust is slowly building. I know this sounds totally out there but I missed all these signs for four years and hind sight being what it is, I hate myself for missing them all this time. I am so fortunate to have always been a stay at home mom, here all the time. I have a hard working husband who spent all his free time with me and the kids. Honestly our life seemed perfect, I thought we had the perfect family and had strong family values. It is very frightening how quickly your family can change. Ours caused by one horrible, evil man. He has even let run aways move into his home, nothing is to low for this man.
In August the members took a group of kids from the high school on a camping trip. Some of these girls were 13 and 14 years old. Out camping with college boys. I know there were no sexual things going on as they are supposed to save it for marriage and I beleive Tom would never participate in anything like that. But these kids were their being brainwashed, groomed if you will for their future with this cult.
********** is a very smooth operator and has this plan so carefully worked out and everyone versed on what they are doing and what their job is. I honestly can not believe that his wife does not see or simply just does not care what he is doing to families all over Stow. Groups of girls from this cult have put up terrible hate websites and as soon as it was found out they were quickly taken down. This man is evil and charades as a loving, caring man who just has a personal calling to keep kids off the streets. Believe me I will be the first to admit that I loved telling people that my teenager was at bible study and at church on saturday night and sledding and camping with a church group. I was so proud to be able to tell everyone what a great teenager I had. I am so ashamed, so sad and so sorry that I failed my son and my family.
For now I have lost my son, he is gone, he has moved out of our home and into ***** the prophets control. I have to believe that someday my son will wake up from this nightmare and come home. He will get tired of giving all that he has and all that he earns to this idiot. I do believe this will happen, I have to. I also believe our family values and love are stronger than anything ******* has to offer him.
But my hope in all this is to save another teenager or unsuspecting parent from going through what I have gone through. Be careful know who your kids are with and where they are at. Even better do what I regret failing to do GO THERE!!!! See where they will be, who they will be with and exactly what they will be hearing. Ask questions and demand answers. I did all these things and was still violated by another type of child predator. And this predator is just as dangerous as any other. I will never stop fighting for my son and to break up this “CULT”. I refuse from this point on to call it anything but that. This is what it is and it is taking our children and more people need to care. Right now the pain is unmeasurable for myself, my husband and my other children. We are suffering a great loss, our son, our brother and our friend TOM.
If anyone wants someone to talk to, please contact me. If you are in this situation now, please get your child out of it. If you have something to add, please do.
Annemarie Smith
Rifqa and The Xenos Christian Fellowship!
Rifqa, a high-school junior, had been questioning her faith for several months, her father said. She attended one church with friends from school and later attended services at another church, Xenos Christian Fellowship, a megachurch that emphasizes small groups meeting at home.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Comments from her Family members
We love her, we want her back, she is free to practice her religion, whatever she believes in, that's OK," her father, Mohamed Bary, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
"What these people are trying to do is not right — I don't think any religion will teach to separate the kids from their parents," he said.
Rifqa's family, including her older brother, have told 10TV News that the accusations of honour killings, and the alleged threat to her life, only came after her meetings with Pastor Blake Lorenz, who leads Global Revolution Church in Orlando.
Honour killings are not common place in Sri Lanka. The practise of honour killings has very little to do with religion. Honour killings have been carried out in the past by Hindu's in India and Muslims in Afghanistan. The practise is common place in parts of the Middle East as well. But thankfully it is not tolerated in Sri Lanka. In Iraq, a whole village took part in the stoning of Dua Khali, a 17 year old, stoned to death in public for falling in love with a Sunni Muslim. Dua was killed by people of the Yazidi faith. If the same was to happen in Sri Lanka, neighbours and onlookers would have intervened and called the police.
Honour killings do not exist in Sri Lankan culture, or among Sri Lanka's Muslims, but rebellious 17 year olds are everywhere. Only god knows how many times I fought with my dad and wanted to run away in my teens.
Family members said they would never harm Rifqa. Her older brother, Rilyan, said the accusations of violence came up only after his sister met Lorenz."
You also saw in the video someone is patting her on the back and saying good job," Rilyan said. "She's definitely been told what to do. It's not even her. She's not even making eye contact in the video. What does that tell you?"
"What these people are trying to do is not right — I don't think any religion will teach to separate the kids from their parents," he said.
Rifqa's family, including her older brother, have told 10TV News that the accusations of honour killings, and the alleged threat to her life, only came after her meetings with Pastor Blake Lorenz, who leads Global Revolution Church in Orlando.
Honour killings are not common place in Sri Lanka. The practise of honour killings has very little to do with religion. Honour killings have been carried out in the past by Hindu's in India and Muslims in Afghanistan. The practise is common place in parts of the Middle East as well. But thankfully it is not tolerated in Sri Lanka. In Iraq, a whole village took part in the stoning of Dua Khali, a 17 year old, stoned to death in public for falling in love with a Sunni Muslim. Dua was killed by people of the Yazidi faith. If the same was to happen in Sri Lanka, neighbours and onlookers would have intervened and called the police.
Honour killings do not exist in Sri Lankan culture, or among Sri Lanka's Muslims, but rebellious 17 year olds are everywhere. Only god knows how many times I fought with my dad and wanted to run away in my teens.
Family members said they would never harm Rifqa. Her older brother, Rilyan, said the accusations of violence came up only after his sister met Lorenz."
You also saw in the video someone is patting her on the back and saying good job," Rilyan said. "She's definitely been told what to do. It's not even her. She's not even making eye contact in the video. What does that tell you?"
Thursday, August 20, 2009
A Reader's Comments
Following is a comment sent in by one of our readers and we would like to share it with you:
"If the girls parents allowed her access to social websites (by which she met this so called prayer group) it is highly unlikely that they are the type to resort to honour killings, and never in SL, even though the girls lawyer admits it happens in the US, which means she could still be at risk in the US and better off if returned to her parents.
Keep the girl aside.GO and check about this so called "Prayer Group"..these are the parasites in this world. Secretly brain washing poor, or uneducated or children who can not understand right or wrong. Should ban these organizations."
"If the girls parents allowed her access to social websites (by which she met this so called prayer group) it is highly unlikely that they are the type to resort to honour killings, and never in SL, even though the girls lawyer admits it happens in the US, which means she could still be at risk in the US and better off if returned to her parents.
Keep the girl aside.GO and check about this so called "Prayer Group"..these are the parasites in this world. Secretly brain washing poor, or uneducated or children who can not understand right or wrong. Should ban these organizations."
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