Clueless cops doubt Rifqa Bary's story

"He said her father, Mohamed Bary, appears to be a loving parent who knew about her conversion to Christianity months ago....'The parents knew months ago that she was … going to different religious, Christian functions,' Cupp said, and there's no evidence that they threatened her with violence."

What does Cupp expect Rifqa Bary's father to say? "Yes, please send her home so we can chop her into little pieces"?

When it comes to honor killing and Islamic apostasy cases -- and this case is both -- Pamela is quite right in saying that "the courts and the cops have no clue what they are dealing with."

And that cluelessness is the bitter fruit of the politically correct half-truths and fantasies about Islam that the mainstream media has peddled relentlessly since 9/11 -- and before that.

Here is Rifqa's side of the story.

Keystone Kops Alert: "Runaway cites fear of father over leaving Islam: Police doubt city man a threat to teenage Christian convert," by Meredith Heagney for the Columbus Dispatch, August 12 (thanks to Pamela):

A Northeast Side 17-year-old who ran away, saying that her father would kill her for leaving Islam, is in state custody in Florida.

But Sgt. Jerry Cupp of the missing-persons unit of the Columbus police special-victims bureau, disputes Fathima Rifqa Bary's allegation. He said her father, Mohamed Bary, appears to be a loving parent who knew about her conversion to Christianity months ago.

The New Albany High School cheerleader, who goes by Rifqa, disappeared on July 19, prompting fears that she had been abducted, Cupp said.

Authorities soon found that she was staying with a married couple who pastor a church in Orlando.

"She was petrified that her dad would kill her," said the Rev. Beverly Lorenz, who leads Global Revolution Church in Orlando along with her husband, the Rev. Blake Lorenz.

Mrs. Lorenz met the girl through a Facebook prayer group. Lorenz barely knew the girl, she said, but took her in when she called from a borrowed cell phone in Florida.

"She hopped on a bus, and from what she said, she wanted to get the farthest away she could get, and Florida was the farthest," Lorenz said....

The girl told investigators that she was afraid her parents would kill her, but the investigation is ongoing, so Arenas couldn't comment on whether the girl's claim is credible.

Cupp has interviewed the father several times, he said, and doesn't think the man is a threat.

"The parents knew months ago that she was … going to different religious, Christian functions," Cupp said, and there's no evidence that they threatened her with violence.

It "seems outlandish to me," he said, "but that's not for me to decide. We'll gladly let the courts work this thing out."...