Ohio runaway says she fears for life after converting to Christianity

By Michael Kruse, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, August 21, 2009
 

Mohamed Bary and his wife, Aysha, with their son Rilvan, say they don't want to kill their daughter for converting to Christianity. "It's completely false," Mohamed Bary said.

ORLANDO — The thin girl looked into the TV camera on Aug. 10. It was her 17th birthday. She said she had fled from her family in Ohio. Now she was in a pastor's arms in the pastor's home here in Florida.



"Um, well, I, I'm a Christian," Rifqa Bary began, "and my parents are Muslim, they're extremely devout, and they can't know about my faith — well, um, they do now, but, um, they've threatened to kill me."


Some saw a new believer in Jesus Christ pleading for her life. Others saw a brainwashed teen parroting radical evangelicals.


Before the interview, this was a story of a missing person, of great interest to her family, her friends and the authorities looking for her. After the interview, though, Rifqa Bary became much more than that: a contested prize in a culture war.


The pastor's name is Blake Lorenz, he's the leader of a new church called Global Revolution, and here's what he said this week:


"These are the last days, these are the end times, and this conflict between Islam and Christianity is going to grow greater. This conflict between good and evil is going to grow greater."


Craig McCarthy, the court-appointed attorney for Rifqa's mother, sat the other day in the courthouse where this afternoon there will be a hearing in which a judge will decide what to do with Rifqa. He shook his head.


"This case," he said, "is about this family."


Rifqa's parents say they don't want to kill her. "It is completely false," Mohamed Bary said in a brief TV interview.


They're stressed, McCarthy said, and they have many questions — but one more than any other:



"How does their daughter end up halfway across the country in some preacher's arms?"


Mohamed and Aysha Bary saw their daughter, an honor student and a cheerleader, in the wee hours of July 19. She was gone in the morning. Her father called the Columbus Police Department later in the day to report her missing.


The police put out a national alert. They sent a picture of Rifqa to local papers and TV stations. They tried to monitor her computer and cell phone activity. Nothing.


It was that way for a week. Then two.


"It was as if she disappeared completely," Columbus detective Jerry Cupp said this week.


Down here, though, at least one group of people knew exactly where she was. Inside the four-bedroom home at 3825 Crescent Park Blvd., where Blake and Beverly Lorenz live with their three kids, who are 20, 24 and 25, Rifqa was staying up late to pray, sleeping into the early afternoons and eating Chick-fil-A.


Blake and Beverly met in church in Winter Park and married nearly 30 years ago. They co-pastor Global Revolution.



The congregation meets on Sunday mornings in Theater 10 in a movie megaplex not far from the Magic Kingdom. The language of last Sunday's service was of "prayer warriors" engaged in a struggle. Two words kept popping up: "the enemy."


Beverly Lorenz heard about Rifqa months ago from friends on Facebook who gathered at a group called the United States of Prayer. Rifqa was known as the girl from Ohio who converted to Christianity and was having a hard time with her parents.


In the spring and early summer, Beverly Lorenz sent Rifqa "seven or eight" Facebook messages, she said, telling the girl that she was praying for her.


In early July, she got up in the middle of the night to pray, she said, and saw Rifqa online, and sent her a message. She got a message back: Call me. They talked for 15 minutes.
"I was quoting Scripture," Beverly Lorenz said this week, "and just really speaking the word to her."



The next time Beverly Lorenz heard from Rifqa she was on a bus. She was coming to Orlando. It was July 21.


The Lorenzes sent some friends to pick her up at the bus station. Sitting in the family room, she looked like "a timid, scared little rabbit," Beverly Lorenz said.


Rifqa said that at home she had to read her Bible under the covers and that her dad had threatened to kill her to preserve the family's honor.


"The Koran does state that if somebody leaves their religion they will be killed," Beverly Lorenz said.


The Koran is like the Bible, or the Torah, or any other ancient, important religious text: Different passages are interpreted differently for different purposes.


But its "overarching principle," said M. Cherif Bassiouni, an Islamic scholar at DePaul University, comes in Chapter 2: "There can be no compulsion in religion."



Still, according to a United Nations estimate, there are as many as 5,000 "honor killings" a year worldwide. But killings in this country that some have called honor killings are prosecuted as what they are: murders.


"She really believes she'll be killed," Blake Lorenz said, "and we do, too."


He said he thinks he asked Rifqa if she wanted to call her parents. He said she said no.


The first time Blake Lorenz called the state Department of Children and Families was July 29 at 3:02 p.m. He says he asked them what would happen in a situation like this and that he was told she probably would be taken back home.


DCF says he was given numbers for the Orlando police. He says they asked him for his name and address and that he gave it. DCF says he did not. They agree on this, though: They asked him for the name of the girl, and he didn't give it.


On July 31 a story ran on TV in Ohio. Rifqa Bary: still missing.


Six days passed until DCF got a second call about Rifqa. Blake Lorenz says it was him.


He made allegations of child abuse in Ohio and said the girl was a runaway. This led to a chain of phone calls from Orlando to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to the Columbus police and back to the Orlando police. They went to the house on Aug. 7.


The officer took Rifqa to the Juvenile Assessment Center. He asked her questions. She refused to answer them.


The next morning, a Saturday, there was an emergency shelter hearing. A judge scheduled a full hearing for Monday morning — Aug. 10 — and ordered that until then Rifqa be put in a DCF shelter after a positive home study with a "suitable relative."


For some reason, a home study was done at the Lorenzes' house and she was left there.


DCF spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner called it a "mistake" and said the investigator was "confused."


Two days later DCF reversed course. A supervisor wrote a note: "Home study was approved prior to being informed that the pastor's family was involved with possibly helping the child run away from Ohio."


The Lorenzes, the note said, "are not appropriate placement."



"We did not lure her down," Blake Lorenz said.


The hearing on the morning of Aug. 10 was postponed until that afternoon. In between those two times is when the local TV station came to the Lorenzes' home and taped the seven-minute interview with Rifqa. Blake Lorenz says his attorney told him to call TV.


This is how Rifqa ended up on TV, and then on YouTube, and then all over the world, saying her father was going to kill her.


Blake and Beverly Lorenz pray the judge keeps her in Florida.


But the case most likely will go back to Ohio. Rifqa's parents have already agreed for her to go to a foster home in Ohio for at least 30 days.


Family court is sometimes a clumsy way to fix messy situations, but the goal in cases like this is constant: to put families back together, as long as it's safe.


Times researcher Shirl Kennedy contributed to this report. Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or (727)893-8751.

Rifqa Bary Latest Updates: No credible reports of threats toward Rifqa, FDLE says

Amy L. Edwards and Rene Stutzman

Sentinel Staff Writers


7:49 p.m. EDT, September 14, 2009



In an investigative report unsealed today, FDLE did not discover any threats toward Rifqa Bary or her family in Ohio.

Although officials in two states have yet to prove it, Fathima Rifqa Bary told investigators she would become the victim of an "honor killing" because of her conversion to Christianity.



The Ohio teen had planned locations thousands of miles away from her home -- known as "fire drills" -- where she could seek refuge. Orlando was her "primary planned sanctuary," and that's exactly where Rifqa ended up in July.


Those were among the details of a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report that said investigators found no credible reports of threats toward the 17-year-old runaway. The report was unsealed Monday. Rifqa's taped interview with investigators remains sealed.


" . . . FDLE's inquiry to date has failed to reveal any evidence of a conspiracy to commit, solicitation to commit, attempt or other efforts to commit any such action or other violence against her," the report said.


FDLE's seven-page investigative summary includes interviews with Ohio school officials; with Rifqa's father, who has denied threatening his daughter; and with Brian M. Williams, a 23-year-old with ties to Columbus and Kansas City, Mo.




Williams baptized Rifqa and helped her get to Florida, according to the report.


The Islamic community was not investigated. Investigators checked with local, state and federal authorities in Columbus and Orlando and "have not been made aware of any identifiable threat."


Rifqa made international headlines after she ran away from her home near Columbus, Ohio, in mid-July, took a Greyhound bus to Florida and sought shelter with an Orlando family.


Rifqa, 17, has said she left Ohio because she feared she would be hurt or killed by her Muslim family because she converted to Christianity. She stayed with longtime Central Florida pastors Blake and Beverly Lorenz for more than two weeks before a judge placed her in state foster care, where she remains.


Other than her father, Rifqa did not identify anyone who have verbally or physically threatened her with death, the report said.



Also in the report:


-- Rifqa told investigators she had been abused by her father throughout her childhood, but her parents and older brother denied such allegations or using any harsh punishment. An Ohio school official told investigators the district had no records of alleged abuse.


-- Rifqa told investigators a high school teacher offered to let her stay at her house if Rifqa "needed to escape repercussions from her family due to her Christian religious beliefs." Investigators questioned the teacher, Debbie Crump, who told them she wasn't aware of any danger toward Rifqa. The teacher said she made the offer to Rifqa because her brother was having parties at the house when the Barys were out of town and the teacher was concerned for Rifqa's safety in that environment.


-- Rifqa may not have hitchhiked to a bus station on July 20. That's what she told investigators, but Williams told them he picked her up from a residence and drove her to the station. Rifqa's bus ticket was purchased in Orlando under a fictitious name. The report does not say who purchased it.


Reached recently by the Sentinel, Williams said he couldn't talk because he was already overextended on his cell phone minutes. Williams has not responded to multiple e-mails, Internet or telephone messages seeking comment.


Meanwhile, the Lorenzes' spiritual journey has taken a new path in Orlando.



A schism in their evangelical congregation, Global Revolution Church, led to them being banned from meeting in the movie theater that had been the church home. They abandoned -- voluntarily, they said -- the church name.


On Sunday, the Lorenzes and about 60 adults worshiped in an unair-conditioned warehouse in south Orange County. One of their music leaders set her keyboard atop a sawhorse. An audio-visual team propped a projector on a 10-foot ladder, secured by a piece of wood and a C-clamp.


Still, the Lorenzes preached, and the congregation prayed, sang and praised Jesus together.


Amy L. Edwards can be reached at aledwards@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5735. Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394.


Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

Rifqa Bary to stay in Florida; family files complaint against Orlando pastors

Amy L. Edwards and Sarah Lundy

Sentinel Staff Writers


8:19 p.m. EDT, September 21, 2009


The legal battle over teen runaway Fathima Rifqa Bary will continue Tuesday in an Ohio courtroom after an Orlando hearing Monday brought more questions than resolutions.



Orange Circuit Judge Daniel Dawson did nothing to change the custody of the 17-year-old who is living with a foster family near Orlando and said he planned to talk to an Ohio judge to find out if there is a legitimate custody action in that state.


If so, Dawson would need to determine if and how long Florida's emergency jurisdiction should remain.


Meanwhile, Rifqa's father stepped up a strategy to bring his daughter back to Ohio. Mohamed Bary filed a criminal complaint against the Orlando pastors who helped shelter Rifqa for more than two weeks before the state intervened.


Lawyer Shayan Elahi told the Orange County court that Rifqa's parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary filed a complaint about Blake and Beverly Lorenz with law enforcement officials.


A letter sent to Orlando police by Mohamed Bary claimed Rifqa was "indoctrinated and coerced" by representatives of Global Revolution Church and "was hidden" by the Lorenzes. Orlando police said they are not investigating.


An FDLE spokeswoman confirmed the agency received a complaint against the Lorenzes, but she could not comment further.


Rifqa made national headlines when she ran away from her home near Columbus, Ohio, took a bus to Central Florida and sought shelter with the Lorenzes in July. She spent more than two weeks with the family until Aug. 10 when she was placed into state foster care, where she remains.


The teen said she feared her Muslim family would harm or kill her because of her conversion to Christianity.


Rifqa's family has denied any wrongdoing, and investigators in Ohio and Florida have not found evidence supporting Rifqa's claims.


The pastors, who have served in the ministry in Central Florida for more than 25 years, met Rifqa through a prayer group on the Internet social networking site Facebook.


A Florida statute makes it unlawful to shelter an unmarried minor for more than 24 hours without the consent of their parent or guardian, or without notifying a law-enforcement officer of the child's name. A violation of that law is a misdemeanor.


Mat Staver, the Lorenzes lawyer and longtime friend, said there is "no solid basis for the complaint" filed against them.



He said the Lorenzes did what any person would do given the circumstances. Staver said the Lorenzes took multiple steps to notify authorities.


The Lorenzes were questioned as part of FDLE's earlier inquiry into the alleged threats made against Rifqa by her family, Staver said. They have not been questioned since.


The pastors were already forbidden from visiting Rifqa in foster care. Dawson added their adult children to the ban in light of any criminal inquiry.


Rifqa used Monday's hearing to peruse a Bible. Other than stating her name, she did not speak.


Her parents listened to the hearing by phone.


In recent weeks, the Barys launched a new strategy to get their daughter back to their home near Columbus and placed in Ohio's foster care system. Mohamed Bary's filing, asking a judge to declare his daughter incorrigible for repeatedly being disobedient, is one case there.


Another hearing is scheduled in juvenile court this morning in Columbus, Ohio, to address the issue. Criminal attorney Kort Gatterdam, who is representing Rifqa in Ohio, said he will respond to the complaint and plans to file something in court in the morning. He wouldn't give details about what he's going to file.


Rifqa's Guardian Ad Litem, Krista Bartholomew, said in court today that she has "grave concerns" that the Ohio case would be dismissed as soon as Rifqa is sent back there.


The Barys also filed a dependency petition against themselves in juvenile court in Ohio, Elahi said. The next hearing in that case is Oct. 27. Roger Weeden, the attorney for Aysha Bary, said the Ohio court has accepted jurisdiction and argued that all of the witnesses in Rifqa's case, from relatives to teachers, are there.



Rifqa's Florida case is set for mediation Oct. 9. Another proceeding in juvenile court is Oct. 13.


Also today, Dawson kept sealed FDLE's interview of Rifqa. The judge said he wanted to read a transcript of the interview before deciding to remove the seal.


Amy L. Edwards can be reached at aledwards@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5735. Sarah Lundy can be reached at slundy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6218.

Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

Rifqa Bary Part II: The fake apostate conspiracy By Davi Barker

September 3, 4:46 AMSF Muslim Examiner - Davi Barker

There is no might or power on earth or in Heaven greater than God.

WND located this photo of Tayee Adrian, Rifqa's liason with Xenos Cult.

I'm way out on a limb here, but I think I figured it out! Tell me if this makes sense... if you're just tuning in go back and read Rifqa Part I: The Xenos Cult

It's 2:44 am, and I haven't slept, but the trial is today and I don't have time to polish this, so here's some real gonzo journalism. I do this all for you, my dear reader.

The Franklin County Children Services in Ohio conducted a nearly month long investigation and concluded that the allegations against Muhammad Bary were unsubstantiated and it was safe for Rifqa to return home. Although they recommended therapy for the girl, and Muhammad agreed the whole family could use counseling.


That's bad for the anti-Muslim narrative, so John Stemberger filed a memorendum basically saying, "No it's not the Dad... it's the whole community!" Basically the Noor Islamic center is connected to Dr. Saqr, who's connected to Salah Soltan, who's connected to Al-Qaradawi, who's connected to Al Qaeda and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and all the evil people in the world. He actually said this is the memorendum. "The Muslim Brotherhood... an international organization responsible for birthing virtually every Islamic terrorist organization in the world!"

Therefore Ohio is not safe. Carry out that arguement all 10,000 Muslims at the Noor Islamic Center Community are terrorists by association. Let's just take away all their kids and give them to good evangelical families? I'll tell you one thing reader... if she's not safe in Ohio, she's not safe in Florida. All it took was a little creative Googling and I was able to determine the likely address where she's staying*... But I digress.

Oh my dear reader! I can play the association game. Check this out...

My contacts in Ohio on the case say that Xenos materials and a Flash drive containing the diary of Pastor Brian Williams were found in her bedroom and were turned over to police. They also confirm that I was right about the man in the room in the video as I described in Part I. That he was bald, had a goatee. They tell me he was also at the hearing on the 21st and addressed Muhammad Bary is "Brother" like a Muslim. But this guy was not a Muslim. He was interviewed after the trial in Florida twice by CBN:


This guy is Jamal Jivanjee.
Jamal Jivanjee claims to be a Muslim apostate from Columbus. He befriended Rifqa in Columbus long before she fled to Florida. He was also at the court house Friday August 21st. Bald guy with a goatee.


Ok... check this out.

If he's the coach in the first video, that means he went with Rifqa from Ohio to Florida. And that means that this is probably the guy that Lorenz is protecting when he says he doens't want to reveal who bought her the ticket.

"The pastor won't say who bought Rifqa's ticket. He is trying to protect the person" ~ Orlando Sentinal

I'd even bet (if I were a betting man) that there is no ticket and Jamal drove her the whole way.

But it get's better...
Jamal Jivanjee is on the board of directors of "illuminate" and on his bio he says he's a graduate of Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA where he studied Pastoral ministry. The President of the Liberty Theological Seminary and Professor of Apologetics at Liberty University is Ergun Mehmet Caner. Ergun Caner was interviewed by the Florida Baptist Witness early in the Rifqa contraversy but he dropped out of the frey.


Ergun claims to be another Christian convert from Islam from Columbus Ohio, and claims that he lives his life with a fatwa against his life from that community, which makes him uniquely qualified to speak about this case. This man is a complete charlatan! He is a fraud! He is a liar! A dajjal! I strongly suggest you take a look at this video. It's the first in an eight part series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRDyOaCJ3t0&feature=player_embedded

Ergun Mehmet Caner is FAKE apostate. He and as his brothers are these Christians that go around claiming to be ex-Muslim preaching lies about how aweful being a Muslim is. If you didn't watch the series here's some highlights. He claims his father built that mosque, and that he was trained to be the muadhin, but he misprounounces it! In part 2 he says the Shahada is "bismillakh aman arakhim mukhamdu alham arakhman arakhim." In part 3 he says that Ramadan is 40 days, and he says, "Jesus strapped himself to a cross so I wouldn't have a stap a bomb to myself." And he's always careful to point out that apostates risked their culture, families and lives for Jesus by leaving Islam. This man was never a Muslim!


So we're dealing with liars. And what's worse, they train other fake apostates! This is the sourse. This is the propagandist. The brainwasher. Ergun trains anti-Muslim propagandists. Jamal is a student of Ergun. Rifqa is a "friend" of Jamal. These are the people who turned typical arguments between a completely westernized teenage cheerleader and her liberal parents into death threats and honor killing from Islamic jihadists in Rifqa's mind.

That's all I have for now. It's not proof yet, but I think this raises some serious questions about how all these people are connected. It's still just a theory. But I think it's a stronger chain of reasoning than "They're all TERRORISTS!" Hopfully it comes full circle in the trial today.

* Clarifiaction Added 09/14/09 - Apparently this has really upset the Anti-Muslim Brain Trust who think that I am stalking Rifqa Bary. I've gotten a number of hateful and threatening messages about this thanks to an article about me by Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs. Frankly, I'm more consumed with the final 10 days of Ramadan, which is more important to me than engaging with Pamela, but I feel compelled to make some response.



To be clear I did not seek out this address. I will not share it, and I don't believe she is in any real danger. I discovered it accidentally during my normal investigative process. My point was to demonstrate that the debate over her safety in Ohio or Florida is a red herring. I personally feel the motivation in fighting to keep the case in Florida, and not Ohio where the alleged crime, all the witnesses, and all the evidence is, is because the child protection laws are more in their favor in Florida. If a person is genuinely concerned for Rifqa’s safety, as I am, her safety in Florida no different than her safety in Ohio.


Further, if Pamela truly believed that my statement was dangerous why would she post it? She took the quote from a small time writer with an average of 200-300 hits per article out in California, and posted it on her site, which gets thousands of hits, specifically from people following the case in Ohio and Florida. It makes no sense. What she has done is revealed herself and her priorities. Clearly she is more concerned with her narrative about Islam and Muslims than the Truth, or the actual safety of the girl.


It never occurred to me that the statement might be dangerous, and I honestly don't think it is. I was making a point about security theater. I have taken a stance against the punishment for apostasy, in favor of Rifqa’s emancipation, against collective guilt, and for presumed innocence for all parties. If Pamela had done any investigation she would have discovered this instantly.


Some have asked me to edit the article, but I will not. I'm sure Pamela has already taken a screen shot, and if I remove it now she will just publish the screen shot, putting more eyes on this statement she deems so dangerous. But for now, I'm not sweating it. I will continue to espouse what I believe to be True, though they dislike it. I will not be intimidated by her, or the threats of her cronies.


I have decided that the best course of action is to collected the contact information for the relevant authorities which Pamela advises her readers to report me to, and inform them how and where I came across this address so they can remove it if they feel it compromises her security in any way. I leave it in the capable hand of those security agencies.


I'm relatively certain that when the gag order comes off the police reports this will all blow over. And if it doesn't, I will certainly eat my words, and stand on which ever side protects the well being of the girl.

Rifqa Bary and the Xenos Cult By Davi Barker

September 1, 2:13 AM, SF Muslim Examiner - Davi Barker

Anyone watching the blogosphere now knows Rifqa Bary. Born Muslim, she converted to Christianity and fled her home in New Albany Ohio and went to Orlando Florida to the home of a pastor she met on Facebook. This video surfaced on August 10th, Rifqa's 17th birthday, which began the the cacophony.



There were immediately two competing narratives. Rifqa's attorney John Stemberger asserts that Rifqa suffered a history of physical and sexual abuse, and she is now fighting for her life. Anti-Muslim bloggers like Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch immediately jumped into the fray. In this narrative an extremely devout Muslim family from a radical Ohio mosque are trying to fly their apostate daughter back to Sri Lanka for an “honor killing.” The Bary family insists that they've never made any such threats, that the girl is free to practice any religion, and they just want their family whole again. In this narrative a cult of Evangelical Christians used the Internet to brainwash her into leaving her religion and her family and move the Florida.


On the Evangelical side this is an opportunity to dump on Islam, and the girl is the frosting that makes the guano palatable. On the Muslim side the focus is on defending Islam, and there's little regard for the details of the case. But I found serious problems with both narratives. Now, I think I've found something few others are talking about.


The first thing that was clear was the Rifqa learned about "honor killings" from Christians not from Muslims. Periodically in the video, when she's flustered, she looks over to someone off camera. This is a tell when someone has been coached. They seek visual confirmation by making eye contact. At the five minute mark she says, "It's in the Quran." Which it's not, but then she looks off camera and says, "You can, like, give them knowledge about it." She gestures, and a man answers unintelligibly. Then she says to the reporter, "He really will explain it and break it down. They have to do this!" Who ever that man is... he is the coach. And we know it's not the pastor because he's holding her, but I'm certain he had a hand in it. He's quoted as having said, "These are the last days, these are the end times, and this conflict between Islam and Christianity is going to grow greater. This conflict between good and evil is going to grow greater." Do you see why it makes no sense? If this is her religion, her upbringing, her life... she would be fluent in it's details. She wouldn't need someone else to explain it for her.


But that's not enough. Blake Lorenz had only had her for a few weeks in Florida. That's time for coaching, but not for brainwashing. So, I looked to her church activity in Ohio. Only a few articles briefly mention that she attended Church called Xenos Christian Fellowship. A little Googling on this group immediately brings the whole picture into view. Message boards and articles about the Xenos Fellowship are filled with comments about the group's cultish tendencies, specifically it's manipulative efforts to isolate people from their friend's and family.


Xenos means "Alien" as in the members of the Church, called "Xenoids," should be aliens in this world, seeking only their home in Heaven. Ex-Xenoids speak of years of rigid social control and peer pressure before they could get out and ostracism once they left. Stories emerge of "Leaders" running a "Ministry House" where groups of older members live together and host "Home Church" to "Cell Groups" of high school and junior high aged members. The group takes 13 and 14 year old girls out on "Bible Study" camping retreats with college aged boys.


Ex-leaders describe a community where adults and youth are discouraged from socializing outside the fold without bringing another Xenoid along. Where leaders conspire to orchestrate the romantic relationships of members by pairing "workers" together and breaking off "fringe" members. Others describe losing loved ones to the Church, their siblings, or children or even spouses being so engrossed in the Church they abandon all other ties. They describe the Church as preying on confused teenagers, exploiting their weaknesses and then jumping in to "save" them. Even worse they have on staff an on call psychologist to keep people in line.


Annemarie Smith, creator of Parents Against Xenos calls the Church the "Xenos Cult", and their leader, "The Devil Man." At her blog she describes her son's history with the Xenos Cult, which is not at all unlike Rifqa's story. Her son Tom, like Rifqa, was an honor roll student. A charismatic over achiever. But like Rifqa he was relatively new to the area, and needed friends. Members seek out candidates with family problems, or who just don't fit in somehow. Just as Muhammad describes his daughter, Annemarie described Tom as,"speaking as if reading from a script." Like Rifqa he was baptised in his new religion. He told his family that he did not feel as connected to them as to his new Church, and he could not have relationships that were not centered around God. So complete was the group's control over Tom that he called to threaten her into shutting down her website. But she continues in good faith that her son will come around. The leader then accused her of carrying on a, "terror campaign" when she stood outside the Church's meetings with signs saying, "I want my son back." In her crusade against the Xenos Cult Annemarie has pulled many from the flock, but not Tom.



Let me be clear. I subscribe to a principle which is as Islamic as it is American, that the accused be considered innocent until proven guilty. I consider the father innocent of the allegations of abuse until I see evidence. Similarly, I consider the pastor innocent of the allegations of brainwashing until I see evidence. I believe that this is most likely what happened to Rifqa. The flavor is different, but the results are the same.


Rifqa and her attorney, John Stemberger describe her family as "extremely devout" and try to connect the family with terrorism in the community. The Muslim response has been that Muhammad is not very devout. His daughter was a cheerleader, and his son drinks beer and parties.

I don't think this is a good argument. What you do by making this argument is you concede that devout Muslims are violent, and you throw the Bary family under the bus to save Islam from controversy. If you want to jump to the defense of Islam, just link people to the hundreds of scholars who confirm that the death penalty for apostasy comes from a time in history when apostasy was synonymous with treason. It has no place in the modern world. There is no compulsion in religion. Islam is not on trial here. We are talking about a specific person. And specific people are capable of murder. Do not allow this to be an argument about Islam. Stand up for justice for the girl!



The family insists that they've never made any threats. Character witnesses from amongst the family's friends and neighbors confirm that they are not as they are being portrayed. Sgt. Jerry Cupp of the Columbus Police Department told the Associated Press that Bary "comes across to me as a loving, caring, worried father about the whereabouts and the health of his daughter." , and police say they have found no evidense of abuse. But this does not support the allegation that Blake Lorenz brainwashed and kidnapped the girl into an Evangelical cult. Screenshots from Rifqa's Myspace show her proclaiming "JC" as her savior in 2007, long before she met Blake Lorenz. He may be a charlatan who's enjoying his moment in the spot light.
 

I believe the most likely culprit here is the Xenos Cult, a group that specifically emphasizes verses where Jesus tells the disciples to leave their family, disown their loved ones. Xenos tears families apart.

As Muslims I think we must suspend judgement, because if we deny the facts, and we bunker down in defense of Islam, and we're wrong, we will have lost all credibility. The Truth will out. A judge ordered the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate the abuse allegations, while Rifqa is staying with a temporary guardian in Florida until the next hearing scheduled for September 3rd. If any of these allegations are true the Facebook records will show it. We must stand in defense of the girl, because Rifqa is the victim in any scenario.

We must contend with the reality that she is a 17 year old woman who in all likelihood genuinely believes her life is in danger. Even if she's wrong, that fear is real. Can we in good conscience force her to return to a family she's terrified of?If you ask me she needs a psychiatrist who specializes in cult deprogramming. Who ever the culprit is, she's probably suffering from extreme emotional and psychological damage. I think that we must seriously consider advocating for her emancipation?

Ohio judge will address two Rifqa Bary cases in late October

An Ohio judge will address two cases involving teen runaway Fathima Rifqa Bary at a hearing in late October, Rifqa's Ohio lawyer told the Orlando Sentinel today.



A court in Columbus was supposed to take up one of the matters involving Rifqa today, but a magistrate judge decided Monday to set both cases -- a criminal case and a dependency case -- for a hearing Oct. 27, said Ohio lawyer Kort W. Gatterdam.


Gatterdam is representing Rifqa in the criminal matter. That case was prompted by a filing by Rifqa's father, Mohamed Bary, asking a judge to declare his daughter incorrigible for repeatedly being disobedient.


Gatterdam said he filed a motion to dismiss that case this morning.


In the mean time, Rifqa, 17, remains in Florida.


A hearing in Orange County juvenile court Monday brought more questions about her case than resolutions.


Orange Circuit Judge Daniel Dawson did nothing to change the custody of the teen, who has been living with a foster family in Central Florida since August.


In lieu of the Ohio legal developments, Dawson said he planned to talk to an Ohio judge to find out if there is a legitimate custody action in that state.


If so, Dawson would need to determine if and how long Florida's emergency jurisdiction should remain.


Rifqa made national headlines when she ran away from her home near Columbus, Ohio, took a bus to Central Florida and sought shelter with pastors Blake and Beverly Lorenz in July. She spent more than two weeks with the family until Aug. 10 when she was placed into state foster care, where she remains.


The teen said she feared her Muslim family would harm or kill her because of her conversion to Christianity.


Rifqa's family has denied any wrongdoing, and investigators in Ohio and Florida have not found evidence supporting Rifqa's claims.


In Orange County court Monday, Rifqa's Guardian Ad Litem, Krista Bartholomew, said she has "grave concerns" that the Ohio case would be dismissed as soon as Rifqa is sent back there.


Roger Weeden, the attorney for Aysha Bary, said the Ohio court has accepted jurisdiction and argued that all of the witnesses in Rifqa's case, from relatives to teachers, are there.
 
Rifqa's Florida case is set for mediation Oct. 9. Another proceeding in juvenile court is Oct. 13.



Amy L. Edwards can be reached at aledwards@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5735. Sarah Lundy can be reached at slundy@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6218.


Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

Christian attorney: Why I think Rifqa Bary's mother is in the right...

By Craig McCarthy, Special to the St. Petersburg Times

In Print: Sunday, September 20, 2009

Editor's note: Craig McCarthy, a private attorney in Orlando specializing in juvenile courts, was the court-appointed attorney for Rifqa Bary's mother from Aug. 10 until Sept. 3. Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old Christian convert who fled Ohio for Orlando, has claimed she'll be killed if sent back to her Muslim parents. Last week, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found no credible reason to believe that. At a Monday hearing, her parents' attorneys plan to argue that the case should be dismissed in Florida and sent back to Ohio.

Rifqa Bary smiles at supporters in the crowd in an Orlando courtroom earlier this month. She says she fears for her life if she is to be sent back home.

The objective facts of the Rifqa Bary case, viewed with a minimum of passion and maximum wisdom and discernment, should matter, to Christians in particular.


I am writing now because a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been released addressing the claims of Rifqa Bary that her parents would allegedly kill her because she has converted from Islam to Christianity. The report provides additional documentation of things I have known for some weeks but have not until now been at liberty to say.


It will astonish many fellow conservatives as well as many on the left to learn that I, an evangelical Christian, have vigorously defended Rifqa Bary's mother in court. And I believe that my former client's cause is just.


From the beginning of this case until earlier this month, I was the attorney for Aysha Risana Bary, Rifqa's mother. I hope it comes across as nothing but a simple fact when I say this to you: I know more about what is really going on in this case than you do — and those of us who are Christians and conservatives ought to be interested in the facts behind controversial stories.


I found the Lord and became born again at the age of 5 and was raised in an evangelical tradition and environment. With the exception of my live appearance on Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends last month, I have made my faith as a Christian clear to every journalist who has interviewed me about this case.



I am an attorney who has been involved with probably close to a thousand cases involving child abuse and neglect, both on the side of the state and on the side of parents who have had the state dismantle their families. (A little aside: I almost lost my job way back for trying to save Terri Schiavo while I was a Department of Children and Families attorney — I was critical of Attorney General Charlie Crist in that case then and am critical of Gov. Charlie Crist in this case now.)


Bottom line, I am a Christian attorney who believes in working to advance the cause of Christ while I'm here in this fallen world.


And I also believe that many Christian conservatives have allowed themselves to adopt a narrative and thus reach conclusions about the Rifqa Bary case prematurely, just as we accuse the mainstream media of sticking to their preferred narratives instead of squaring their passions with reality.


Early on, I all but pleaded with Christians to hit the pause button and wait for more investigation and facts. The implications of getting this wrong have pained me greatly. Now to the facts.



On the morning of Aug. 10, I was working at the juvenile courthouse in Orange County. I observed people loudly making threats to bring in the media and the governor about some matter to be heard that day. Something immediately seemed "off" about some of the personalities in this case (and by that I do not mean the child herself).


Later that day, I was appointed to the case to defend Rifqa's mom. This was not purely by chance. As the person in my county who is routinely appointed to serve as an attorney ad litem to speak for children in foster care, I had been asked to stick around. It was anticipated that I might very well become Rifqa's attorney.


When the attorney who had at first entered an appearance on behalf of Pastor Blake Lorenz later changed her position and declared that she in fact represented the child Rifqa, however, I was given the task of representing one of the parents in the case. It's inside baseball for most readers, but I was immediately struck by the strangeness of Lorenz's attorney spontaneously declaring an attorney-client relationship with the child in open court that hadn't existed the moment before.


That sense of strangeness remains relevant given a recent motion to clarify the roles of Rifqa's four attorneys filed by DCF. In any event, I took the case on behalf of Rifqa's mom and started digging, knowing from the beginning that the case had implications for people of my Christian faith and being determined to get it right.


By Aug. 12, I already had solid documentation that at least one thing circulating in the media and on blogs was flat wrong: that the parents had not reported the child missing for 10 days. Not long after, I was able to nail down another misreported "fact," that the child's note left to her parents had not been given to police. Neither of those things are true.


Why are those relatively mundane facts important? They are important because the person reporting them couldn't possibly know those things, yet so-called adults surrounding Rifqa eagerly passed those things on to media without analysis, one imagines, because they served to paint the child's parents in a bad light.


Knowing that the key facts first presented in Orlando were just plain wrong, and almost inexplicably wrong given that neither claim could possibly be known to anyone in Florida, I continued with my sense that something was "off" here, and kept digging.


I was annoyed as a Christian, as an officer of the court and as a litigator (in that order) that many with whom I agree on many issues were so willing to disregard the notion that a parent has the right in this country to raise and influence a child without governmental interference, unless there is evidence of abuse or neglect that is credible and not based on stereotypes or based on the beliefs or actions of what people who are not the parents might think, feel or do.


Consider this: A minor goes missing; an Amber Alert is issued; law enforcement officials develop information; that information brings police to a lead; that lead actually has knowledge of where the child is; despite the fact that the lead initially denies his knowledge of where the child is, police are able to put that together with a call to the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children, and then they find the missing child. … Yet the response of certain people involved with this case is to be outraged that the police did their jobs. Something is "off."


Then came the FDLE report executive summary. It's out there now. It confirms things I already knew. When Mohamed Bary personally showed me photographs of his daughter in a cheerleader outfit when we met for the second time on Aug. 21 (he had driven from Ohio to Florida twice to attend court hearings), I knew that claims that he had no idea that his child was a Westernized and normal high school student were nonsense.


Reading the FDLE report, I now have confirmation of several things I'd developed information about. I am no longer involved with this case as an attorney. It would be improper by my writing to interfere with the Barys' new attorneys and how they want to proceed. Suffice it to say that a growing list of otherwise uninterested people would have to be lying in order for what you think is true about this case to be true.


To my Christian readers I say that most of you likely had a heartfelt desire to protect a new convert to our faith. I can't fault you there. Quite frankly I am happy that the child knows Jesus, but that is a personal feeling and not relevant to my previous job of defending these parents from the power of the state to take their family apart.


Please recognize that the Lord is not so powerless as to need people to hide information, to embellish facts, or to give false witness in order to advance Christ's kingdom. You homeschoolers in particular ought to pause and weigh the power of the state to take your child into foster care against your feelings on this case and whether or not you would wish to be afforded a competent defense should religious biases be used against you some day.


To any readers who may be of the People for the American Way variety who blog about the hypocrisy of Christians, I simply present myself, an evangelical Christian who believes in facts and law and has extended himself far out on a limb before his peers on behalf of Rifqa's mother.


To any readers who may be Muslim, do not allow your reading of certain blogs to taint your feelings toward your Christian neighbors.


And to Rifqa, one year younger than my older child, I say that as a father and as a Christian, and as your mother's former attorney, I care about you and have since Aug. 10. God bless you, and I believe that all things will work together for good.

Craig McCarthy, a graduate of West Point and Florida State Law School, was the court-appointed attorney for Rifqa Bary's mother for the first several weeks of this case.

Her Personal Writings Show She Wanted to be a Prophet

Fathima Rifqa Bary Update: Her Personal Writings Show She Wanted to be a Prophet


Posted on 17 September 2009 by Cobbler


Fathima Rifqa Bary


This case gets stranger by the day as more and more is revealed about the facts surrounding what actually happened.


Fathima Rifqa Bary claimed under the arm of an Evangelical pastor that her father wanted to kill her; according to new reports, it is now clear that she also secretly fancied herself as a prophet a la Esther in the Bible. Now as kooky as this seems to most of us, in this country we have religious freedom as well as freedom of expression. Rifqa is welcome to join the long line of self-declared prophets that routinely pop up in this country, and we have a right to dismiss her as a brainwashed zealot. But when as a consequence of her new found zeal, she accuses, or is manipulated into accusing, another person of physically harming her and threatening her life then it becomes a matter of public concern and a matter for the realm of law and order. As has been pointed out before, in both of those realms, Rifqa’s claims have been not been found to hold water.


Interestingly, all the bloggers who have been in a frenzy over this case, attempting to prove Islam evil, and her family as medieval monsters by manipulating Rifqa into their coveted poster girl for “victim of Islam” have been discredited as they have had to turn to blatant lies to cover up their shameful attempt to destroy a family, but more on that later. Now, they have the extra egg on their face having to explain their enlightened convert’s outrageous claims of prophethood.


(We at LW think that Rifqa should not be demonized, glorified, apostasized, or prophecized — we think she is just another deeply troubled teen in sore need of professional help and hope she gets it. Shame on the Florida wackos and the Spencers and the Gellers who are exploiting her predicament for their own apocalyptic gutter causes.)

Fathima Rifqa Bary: Rifqa’s Personal Writings Indicate She Wants to be a Prophet


By Rene Stutzman and Amy L. Edwards


A Muslim girl who gave her heart to Jesus and then ran away to Christian evangelists in Orlando is not just any Christian. She is driven to save souls and prays that God will make her a prophet.


That’s according to writings she left behind when she fled.


“Lord is preparing me and He has me hidden … until the time is right,” Fathima Rifqa Bary wrote in a computer entry obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. “I am called to the nations. Send me to the deepest darkest places into the pagan land.”


Rifqa, 17, lives with a foster family in the Orlando area. She fled here, she insists, because her father threatened to kill her for abandoning Islam.


There’s no evidence of that, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and child-welfare officials in Columbus, but her claim and her wrenching, tearful YouTube video have prompted a firestorm of response. Thousands of people have weighed in, most insisting that if Florida officials send her back to Ohio, she’ll face certain death.


After Rifqa disappeared July 19, family members searched for clues about why she left. They found a computer flash drive and were stunned by what they read.


Contents of the flash drive were given by her father, Mohamed Bary, to the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Columbus, which shared parts of it with the Sentinel. Bary authorized publication.


Facebook preaching


The writings reveal a young woman who has embraced fundamentalist Christianity, who has stood outside an abortion clinic, duct tape across her mouth, alongside other protesters, and who has dreamed about Armageddon.


She must convert her family to Christianity, she wrote, including her older brother, Rilvan, 18, who worships “demonic music.” She must approach strangers and talk about Jesus. She saved a list of tips on how to do that:


“Do NOT be sneaky,” she wrote. “Sit down … get to know them … [Ask] would you mind for 5min if I share the gospel with you.”


She compared herself to the Old Testament heroine Esther and wrote out or saved religious pep talks.


“What does it take to be a prophet?” she wrote. “If I am a friend of God I can be prophetic. … You have to want it. Everyday pray for prophesy.”


Also on the flash drive are 250 pages of Facebook preaching and blogging by a young Columbus evangelist, Brian Michael Williams, 23, a former Ohio State University sociology student and Rifqa’s religious mentor, according to Bary.


Those are the writings Bary said troubled him most.


Williams prays with people by “laying my hands on the [computer] monitor and prophesying,” Williams wrote. He calls Planned Parenthood’s founder a racist Nazi, does not believe in evolution, speaks in tongues and criticizes mainstream Christians as following a “demonic doctrine” for being spiritually lethargic and failing to evangelize.


Williams baptized Rifqa in a creek near her home in June, he said, and helped her run away — unwittingly, he insists — by driving her to the Greyhound bus station in downtown Columbus.


To Rifqa’s father, Williams is a Christian extremist who turned Rifqa against her family and put lies in her head.


‘An inspiration to me’


Williams said that’s not true. Rifqa, he said, is the one who convinced him that because her father was a Muslim, Bary must kill her to preserve the family’s honor.


“I really appreciate Rifqa’s courage, and she’s been an inspiration to me,” Williams said in a phone interview.


Rifqa’s attorney, John Stemberger, and her guardian ad litem, Krista Bartholomew, were prohibited from commenting on the writings because of a gag order issued by Orange Circuit Judge Daniel Dawson.


In the past week, Rifqa’s parents have launched a new strategy to get their daughter returned to Ohio and placed in its foster-care system. There are now two juvenile-court cases pending in Columbus. Last week, her father filed one, asking a judge to declare his daughter incorrigible for repeatedly being disobedient.


Someone else on Monday filed a separate petition naming Rifqa, something that could give a Franklin County judge the authority to determine where and with whom she lives. The Franklin County, Ohio, Clerk of Courts Office would not identify the petitioner.


Amy L. Edwards of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. Rene Stutzman can be reached at 407-650-6394 or rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com.


Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

1 Comments For This Post


James Says:


September 18th, 2009 at 7:58 pm


“We at LW think that Rifqa should not be demonized, glorified, apostasized, or prophecized — we think she is just another deeply troubled teen in sore need of professional help and hope she gets it. Shame on the Florida wackos and the Spencers and the Gellers who are exploiting her predicament for their own apocalyptic gutter causes”

I wholeheartedly agree and I hope everyone goes easy on her. The teenage years are tough. I hope she gets the help she needs. Shame on people who jumped to conclusions on a complicated story for their own polemical purposes.

Courtesy: http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/09/fathima-rifqa-bary-update-her-personal-writings-show-she-wanted-to-be-a-prophet/

Ohio Governor Says Send Rifqa Bary Back By Rene Stutzman, Sentinel Staff Writer

2:28 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2009


Gov. Ted Strickland's office says Ohio officials can protect Fathima Rifqa Bary, who ran away from her Muslim parents to Christian evangelists in Orlando


The office of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has issued a statement, saying the teenage girl who ran away from her Muslim home in Columbus, Ohio, to evangelical Christians in Orlando, should be returned.



"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," said the statement. "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."


Fathima Rifqa Bary, 17, is currently living with a foster family in the Orlando area. She fled Columbus aboard a Greyhound bus in July, saying her father had threatened to kill her because she had abandoned his faith -- Islam -- and become a Christian.


Her father, Mohamed Bary, a jeweler and Amway distributor, says that never happened. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation supports his claim. So does Franklin County Children's Services, the child welfare agency serving Columbus.


Amanda Wurst, a spokeswoman for Strickland, who is an ordained Methodist minister, first issued the statement yesterday. It puts Strickland at odds with Florida's Gov. Charlie Crist.


Three weeks ago, Crist issued a statement, saying he was grateful for a decision by Orange Circuit Judge Daniel Dawson to keep Rifqa in Florida.


Earlier that day, Crist had sent two powerful figures - Rob Wheeler, his top lawyer; and George Sheldon, secretary for the Florida Department of Children and Families – to a hearing at which the judge ruled that Rifqa should stay in Florida, at least temporarily.


"We'll continue to fight to protect Rifqa's safety and wellbeing as we move forward," said Crist in his statement.


Rifqa's story has set off a firestorm of reaction, especially among evangelical Christians. Crist's office reported today that it had received more than 10,000 pieces of e-mail about it.


Wurst said the Ohio governor's office has received more than 400 calls, e-mails and letters about the issue.


Many people have said they're sure Rifqa will be killed if she's returned to Ohio, if not by her father then by Columbus-area Muslims who believe she's dishonored them.


Columbus-area law enforcement officials say there's no evidence to support that claim, and Strickland's office said the same thing.


"We have no reason to believe that she would be unsafe in Ohio," according to his statement.


Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentine

Rifqa Bary update--Parents File Case In Ohio To Try To Get Her Back by Lydia McGrew

Rifqa Bary's parents have filed a claim against her in Ohio stating that she is an "incorrigible minor" in an attempt to return jurisdiction--and more importantly, Rifqa herself--to Ohio. Judge Dawson in Florida has thus far claimed his court has jurisdiction on the grounds that no court in Ohio claims jurisdiction. This could change all that.


An "incorrigible minor" claim is, from what I've been able to glean, a claim on the part of parents that they cannot control their own child and need the help of the state to do so. Some of the actions that can support such a claim are refusing to obey "reasonable" parental orders, repeatedly running away, being truant, or using drugs or alcohol. Obviously, several of these don't apply to Rifqa, and she has run away only once. Of course, her parents have in one sense "lost control" of her, since she escaped from them! But when the juvenile claims abuse and danger from the parents, there must be (I assume) some mechanism for the court to consider these counterclaims rather than simply returning the child to the parents. The courts can order any number of things if a child is found to be an "incorrigible minor," from house arrest (particularly bad in this case) to foster care. (Unfortunately, I did not keep the most useful link I found on the definition of an "incorrigible minor.")


Commentators here and here at Atlas Shrugs seem to be under the impression that Rifqa will be returned to Ohio but not to her parents. Moreover, this commentator indicate that an "incorrigible minor" claim can be met by a counterclaim for emancipation by Rifqa. I had previously been under the impression that Ohio does not permit emancipation claims, but according to this commentator, what it does not permit is only spontaneous emancipation filings by minors. A minor can, however, try to be emancipated in response to an "incorrigible minor" claim. But is Rifqa financially independent? Would her lack of financial independence scotch an emancipation claim?


More to the point, this article from the Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 2, claims that "Ohio child welfare officials already have concluded it is safe for Rifqa to return. They want to place the girl in therapy and reunite her with her family." This doesn't sound like it supports the positive talk about the responsible and serious actions to be expected from the Ohio authorities. Several news stories have said that Rifqa's parents have consented for her to be put in foster care in Ohio, but not all have added that this is "for at least thirty days." If the Ohio authorities send her back to her parents after thirty days rather than extending the foster care, she could simply be spirited out of the country, a result all the more likely as it appears she is presently here illegally. (That is, of course, not her fault--so are her parents, by the way.)


All of these considerations are, of course, in addition to concerns about her increased danger if she is returned to Ohio at all, even to foster care.


September 14--Pamela Geller at Atlas reports that Rifqa's Sept. 29 hearing date in Florida has been postponed. I am a pessimist by nature and am concerned that this may indicate Florida's willingness to relinquish jurisdiction to Ohio.


Courtesy of: http://www.whatswrongwiththeworld.net/2009/09/rifqa_bary_updateparents_file.html