Every Religion Takes a Stand for Rifqa .........except one

Two religious icons, Faith J. H. McDonnell, director of The Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Religious Liberty Program and Church Alliance for a New Sudan, and the author of Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children; and Ruth King, representing Americans for A Safe Israel, have taken up the cause, the fight for Rifqa's safety.

I had hoped that one Muslim would stand for Rifqa -- the moderate Zuhdi Jasser, perhaps? His silence is deafening. Perhaps he is too busy writing about the lessons of Ramadan for the Puff ho.

But here we have a Christian and a Jew representing their respective organizations standing and fighting for Rifqa's religious liberty and her unalienable right to be free.

We stand against Islamists, dhimmis and supremacists.

The indomitable Faith McDonnell :

“She has committed a crime against the Ummah, or nation state of Islam.”

Gabriel went on to explain that apostasy was punishable by death according to all four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, as well as the Koran, the Hadith – the words of Mohammed himself, and particularly the Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence which guides Islam in Sri Lanka. “She is in dire danger not only from her family because she has soiled the honor of the family, but from the Islamic community in Columbus, Ohio who feel it is their duty to kill her according to their religion,”
[...]” Blogger Katelyn Beaty frowns that Rifqa’s story is being used by Christian bloggers and media “as proof of Islam’s violent roots and the cost of following Christ.” Following Christ is costly “no matter who’s doing the following,” comments Beaty, equating high school ridicule and social ostracism with say, beheading . She adds that the evidence of Islam’s violent roots “is disputable” in the case of Rifqa.

Just as the secular media did, Beaty throws suspicion on Pastors Blake and Beverly Lorenz of Global Revolution Church. Inadverently, she uses several of the same key talking points that the Council on American Islamic Relations (C.A.I.R.) has put forth in their efforts to discredit Rifqa. She quotes the Bary family attorney who claimed that Bary was not afraid until she met Pastor Lorenz. Beaty adds signficantly that Lorenz “holds Bary tightly throughout the video.” Beaty also notes that the famous scholar of Islam Sgt. Jerry Cupp of the Columbus missing person’s bureau “disputes Bary’s claims, telling The Columbus Dispatch that Mohamed Bary has known about his daughter's conversion for months and appears to be caring.” Guess what, Sgt. Cupp and Ms. Beaty. Appearing to be caring is called taqiya. And Beaty does not mention, that other sources say that the police talked to friends and teachers of Rifqa who informed them that Rifqa was in fear for her life and had been the victim of abuse already. Beaty does cite author and founder of Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer, who calls Rifqa’s situation a “slow-motion honor killing,” but then exclaims that The Christian Post “audaciously lists Bary’s story in its ‘persecution’ news file.” I wonder where she would suggest they list it.

Beaty concludes that believers can rejoice that “this teenager has come to Christ in a cultural context in which it would be difficult to betray her parents' teaching.” Describing conversion to Christ as betrayal of the teachings of Islam is a rather odd way for a fellow Christian to phrase the situation, but not unheard of. A speaker on religious persecution at the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches some years ago spoke similarly when she stated disapprovingly that the only Christians who “experience difficulties” in Iran were those who “have chosen to leave the communities of faith into which they were born.”

Finally, says Beaty, “none of this requires that Christians be quick to use Bary's claims to prove that Muslims — in this case, her parents and mosque leaders — are intent on killing Bary because their beliefs make them inherently violent.” She instructs incongruously that “we should also remember the Christians worldwide who actually risk death by Muslims for following Christ: like those in Pakistan and Nigeria.” But the words of Mohammed, "If anyone changes his religion, kill him" (Hadith – Sahih Al-Bukhari 9.84.57) mean the same thing in Ohio that they do in Asia, and Africa.

Perhaps Beaty and others like her should consider that many of those who have been “quick” to believe Rifqa Bary are not interested in proving a point about Muslims, but in protecting a vulnerable girl, convinced that when it comes to honor killing and apostasy it is better to err on the side of caution than to add another name and face to the list of the dead. The best assessment of most of the American Christian church’s comprehension of life under Islamic law came from Rifqa herself. Trying to explain the danger she faces from her Muslim parents, the Islamic community in the Columbus, Ohio area, and the entire Ummah, she exclaimed despairingly, “I’m fighting for my life, you guys don’t understand. You don’t understand.”

Read the rest of The Revelation of Rifqa here.

The magnificent Ruth King:

Putting children first is a bipartisan national policy that mandates legal protection and shelter for minors in harm’s way. It is the way of all civilized nations.

Why do we not apply this policy to the treatment of Arab and Moslem children who are routinely used as shields and props on battle fields; routinely brainwashed to hate; offered as martyrs for suicide missions; killed in the name of a barbaric code of “honor” by relatives including siblings and parents?

Rifqa Bary is a seventeen year old girl who faces danger, abuse and possibly death if she is forced to return to her parents. Her crime under American standards of law? None. Her disrespect for American law? None. Anti-social behavior as dictated by the mores of our society? None.

Why then does Rifqa Bary fear her parents so that on Thursday September 3rd, a Florida Circuit Judge will decide whether to send her home to her family or be given a haven and freedom?

What do her parents and her mosque and Islam see as her crime and violation of law and social behavior and honor? Her conversion to Christianity four years ago. While her conversion remained secret her parents thrived economically in Columbus, Ohio where they worshipped in a local mosque where sermons offered the strictest interpretation of the Koran.

When the mosque, which has been under suspicion for abetting terrrism deliberately “outed” Rifqa's conversion to her family she was subjected to bruises and death threats and fled from her home. In Florida, an Evangelical church gave her shelter and guidance in filing for restraint.

Initially, the muted media interest in her story deliberately ignored the Islamic faith driven death punishment for apostasy. They chose instead, to smear and defame the church as a “cult” and accused them of brainwashing Rifqa.

Americans for A Safe Israel joins a distinguished list of individuals and organizations and journalists who have come forward in support of the right of Rifqa Bary to seek shelter and protection to practice her faith and enjoy all basic freedoms guaranteed by our constitution.

Comments

[Amerisrael]

Mohammed Hijazi's father told him, "I will kill you", because he left Islam. The same type of Islamic smear campaign was made against him.

Former Muslim "friends" appeared on television to engage in character assasination against Hijazi. Calling him "disturbed".

Rifqa said her parents wanted to take her back to Sri Lanka. That there was an asylum where they place "apostates" from Islam because they think "your crazy".

In this video you will see an Egyptian Muslim cleric describe Hijazi who converted from Islam to Christianity as "mentally ill". link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibC1_yjWIvA&feature=related

[Sarastro]

Think of all the murderers, terrorists and criminals, some from Guantanamo, whom our laws will not allow to be sent back to their native countries because to do so might put their lives in danger. Why so much concern about these men, who should be executed for their crimes anyway, and so little concern for a girl who has seen the light and flees from the horrors of Islam? To be an American means to have a choice --- to choose one's religion, the clothes one prefers, what one studies and what one wants to become in life, and who one wants to marry. In Islam, there is no choice.

[duh_swami]

It takes a Caliph or high Islamic court to order the death penalty for apostasy...If there is no Caliph and no such order is given by authority, it becomes the duty of any and all Muslims to kill the apostate...Many of them would be very happy to carry out that duty. It only takes one. But an honor killing by the family is preferred as it is 'they' who are 'shamed'...
A further shame would be to let some other Muslim do it for them...