In July of 2009, a young teenage girl ran away from her home in Ohio, after her father threatened to kill her upon discovering her conversion out of Islam. When she disappeared, many of her friends and those of us who had heard of her plight thought that she had met the worst of fates (as almost of these cases end the same horrible way). Imagine our joy when she emerged alive.
Who can forget? Rifqa Bary: "I want to be free"
What followed was a campaign of intimidation and persecution by Islamic supremacists, her parents and CAIR. Their objective was to shut her up and return her to the hellish home she fought so desperately to escape.
The Islamic supremacists lost. The lovers and defenders of freedom were victorious. But no good deed goes unpunished.
David Yerushalmi is representing me in the outrageous ten million dollar Islamic supremacist lawsuit brought by Omar Tarazi, lawyer for the parents of Rifqa Bary, whose father threatened to kill her after the Noor mosque ratted her out to her parents. Members of the Noor mosque had spied on her and found out that she had converted out of Islam. Scroll this link.
Tarazi has been a featured speaker at the Noor mosque that spied on Rifqa and publicly ridiculed her. The pressure on Rifqa Bary was intense, the fatwas calling for her death numerous.
The Barys had been working closely with Muslim Brotherhood front, Hamas-linked CAIR to return this poor tortured girl to her violent home. Atlas readers fought hard for Rifqa. We rallied, covered her trials to return her home, sent hundreds of Christmas cards in a holiday campaign (the lawyer Tarazi tried to have the cards seized and banned -- unsuccessfully, I might add) and we contacted Florida and Ohio politicians and officials to keep Rifqa safe from her Islamic fundamentalist home and mosque.
Islamic supremacists sprung into action.
Here's a picture of CAIR-Columbus executive director Babak Darvish advising the Barys back last summer. At a January 2010 hearing, Omar Tarazi was going out into the lobby and apparently colluding with the CAIR representative SEVERAL times before and after the hearing. At the very far left, you can see Darvish sitting at his desk supervising the interview. And in this next photo you can see the whole scene inside Darvish's office (this one taken at some other time, as the Barys' clothes have changed, but the picture above them in Darvish's office, as in the other photos, is still the same):
Here is Darvish sitting at his desk
Here was CAIR's PR strategy against Rifqa Bary. And their lapdogs in the media here, here and here.
We won, but Islamic supremacists are not known for being terribly good sports. Here is the AP's take on the lawsuit:
Blogger who backs runaway Christian convert cites First Amendment in defamation suit response via FOX 59 news
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A blogger championing the case of a Muslim-to-Christian convert from Ohio says allegedly defamatory comments she's being sued over were protected free speech.
Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller also says many of the postings singled out in a federal lawsuit could fall into the realm of hyperbole and not defamation.
Geller says in a federal court filing Tuesday that she is a journalist writing about a matter of public interest and is protected by the First Amendment.
Tarazi's lawsuit is an embarrassment to the legal profession. Apart from being factually wrong, his emails are riddled with spelling errors. He exhibits little knowledge of procedure and less of rule of law. One has to wonder how these incompetents pass the bar.
Here is the Dayton Daily News:
Blogger Cites Free Speech in Lawsuit
Geller said many of the postings singled out in the defamation lawsuit also could fall in the realm of hyperbole and not defamation.
In addition, statements of facts she may have posted "are accurate reports of statements of others or they are true statements simply," according to the filing in U.S. District Court. Geller was writing about a matter of public interest as a journalist and so is protected by the First Amendment, the filing said.
[..]Tarazi represented the parents of Rifqa Bary, a Christian teenager who fled to Florida, saying she feared harm from her Muslim mother and father. Bary was returned to Ohio last year and placed in foster care while a juvenile court judge tried unsuccessfully to reunite Bary and her parents.
[...]Tarazi said Tuesday he had not yet seen the court filings.
Geller has advocated for Bary on Geller's Atlas Shrugs blog.
Geller's attorney, David Yerushalmi, said in an interview that nothing his client wrote was defamatory or malicious in the sense of reporting something she knew was false.
[...]
In his lawsuit, Tarazi said Geller wrongly linked him to Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government. He said she also falsely said he was appointed to represent Bary's parents by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
CAIR is a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group. Geller repeatedly refers to Tarazi on her website as a lawyer appointed or selected by CAIR. Her website also includes links to sites alleging CAIR is a terrorist front.
Geller also leads an organization called Stop Islamization of America that placed ads on New York City buses last spring, offering information to those wishing to leave Islam. And she organized a protest on Sept. 11 in New York against a proposed Islamic cultural center to be built near ground zero.
Tarazi said he has never worked for CAIR or been appointed by the group to represent Bary's parents. He said he worked for the couple pro bono except for some minor expenses his clients paid for.
Tarazi said his mother volunteered as a secretary with CAIR-Ohio in Columbus but left that position three years ago.
