Please contact the Governor of Florida and ask him to make sure that Rifqa Bary is not sent back to her parents in Ohio, and that the Department of Children & Families (DCF) keeps custody of her.
People can also call George Sheldon, Secretary of the DCF:
Contact Governor Charlie Crist today:
Phone Calls to (850) 488-7146
Fax letters to (850) 487-0801
or Email him at Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com
The Florida Department of Children and Families
George H. Sheldon, Secretary
1317 Winewood Blvd.
Building 1, Room 202
Tallahassee, Florida
Fax: (850) 922-2993
Some points you may find helpful:
1. Mohamed Bary and his wife appear to be devout, observant Muslims -- Mrs. Bary, after all, has her head covered in the photo of them that is circulating. That indicates that they respect at least some, if not all, Islamic laws. Mohamed Bary is asking us, by claiming that he has no problem with his daughter being a Christian, to believe that he rejects Islamic law in this particular area. Yet there is no indication that they reject Islamic law in any other way.
2. Apostasy is a capital crime according to all the Islamic schools of jurisprudence, so that it is not unreasonable to believe that devout Muslims would object to the conversion to Christianity of their daughter, and desire her death.
3. Other Muslim fathers, as Pamela points out here, have appeared to be credible, gentle fellows as they lured their wayward daughters back home -- after they had run away in fear for their lives. And then once they were back home, they murdered them.
In light of those facts, the court would be foolish in the extreme, when it convenes again on August 21, to expose Rifqa Bary to risk. There is no doubt that this would not be done in other child welfare cases -- any reasonable suspicion that the child could be in physical danger is acted upon immediately, and the child removed from the home. For what conceivable reason should this case be different?
(Thanks to Pamela.)
I just emailed Governor Crist.
Thank you Mr. Spencer and Ms. Geller for caring more about the life of an innocent young woman than her family and Muslims worldwide.
Will be contacting the above and will send a certified e-mail with Cc: to Thomas More Law Center, StopHonourKilling dot com, and others.
It seems to me, if I may put a word in, that making the point about the mother's head covering may backfire. _I_ recognize that that is relevant, but the governor and state officials are likely to treat that as a sign that the people writing the e-mails are just cranks. You know how this will be spun in any even mildly liberal mind: "Is this person saying that any woman who wears a head covering should have her children taken away?" Of course, that isn't what we're saying; it's just one piece of evidence among many others. But I would recommend leaving out the reference to the mother's head covering. The parents, as far as I know, admit to being Muslim. It's not like they are claiming otherwise.
Another point: The very fact that the father is saying that his daughter was brainwashed contradicts his claim that she will be allowed to follow any religion she likes. The "brainwashing" claim is clearly setting up for his cutting off her contact with Christian friends if he gets custody of her again. In fact, he's trying to have it both ways--to sound moderate and pluralistic to some reporters while demonizing his daughter's conversion at the same time. The fact that he treats her conversion as brainwashing is a sign that he is not willing to let her practice her Christianity if she returns. This seems a point worth making to the authorities, as a sign both of the father's inconsistency and of his extremism.
Sorry folks, forgot one thing.
It's a great practice when sending crucial e-mails to Cc:, including to oneself, to interested parties so that the recipients don't merely throw away the e-mails.
Another technique I've used is to follow up later on is inserting the "headers" from the previous e-mail into the text at the bottom of correspondence to let them know that it has been sent and here are the details if needed for legal reasons later on.
Robert and Pamella, thank you for providing this contact information!
I have written Governor Crist.
Good points, Jew_Lover! Looks like ID has changed or we're on a new commenting software...don't see a way to do a reply to a particular person
If the authorities do send her back and she is murdered, the authorities will have blood on their hands. This must be made known to them.
When our efforts fail and she is sent back to her father, they’ll leave the country and we’ll never hear from her again. You hear that Jonny Law? You will be complicit in an honour crime, but I guess under Obamhimmitude, it’ll get you a gold star, uh, I mean a gold Crescent.
Not to open Pandora's box or anything, but:
I'm biting my nails with worry about this girl. Thanks for the email details -- they'll be getting a few from Down Under too.
I agree with Lydia's point about the head-covering and her reasoning about the "flaky impression" factor that we want to avoid. I also agree for a somewhat different reason, whose complications I adumbrate:
1) it implies a tendency to presume that only Muslims who show ostensible signs of following Islamic law are dangerous in circumstances like these (let alone any circumstance, re: secret terrorist plots)
2) it sets up a profile for authorities: should they even entertain contemplating our urgent plea, they will logically in the future only be on the lookout for Muslim families whose wives have head-coverings (plus other superficial evidence, like long beards on the husband and uncles, etc.). If they come across a case similar to Rifqa's in the future, but the Muslim husband is smiling and wearing an orange tennis shirt, and his Muslim wife is smiling and wearing no head-covering at all and rather is wearing a skimpy t-shirt with Jimi Hendrix and "Woodstock 2009" dyed into it -- does that mean their daughter, under similar circumstances, is not in danger?
3) closely related to #1 and #2, it perpetuates the PC MC paradigm that forever distinguishes "good Muslims" from "bad Muslims" based forever on flimsy superficial evidence (when it is not based on irrational axioms ungrounded in any evidence at all) -- a paradigmatic distinction set in stone that, in the event of a horrific terror plot using WMDs against us, would not only be silly and reckless, but positively dangerous.
Why does she not apply for emancipation in Florida?
Another solution is to find a good Christian family somewhere remote and let her live there until she is 18. Screw the government if they don't get the fact that she is in danger of murder by Muslims.
I've e-mailed the governor. Needed to do a good deed today.
Charles Johnson thinks the girl should be sent back to her dad.
Typical POS
"Charles Johnson thinks the girl should be sent back to her dad."
CJ's Leftist Birkenstock-wearing World-Music-concert-attending Whole-Foods-shopping Ikea-furniture-feng-shui-designing 90s-ponytail-hangover virus finally took over his brain.
E-mail sent to the governor.
"Why does she not apply for emancipation in Florida?"
Yes, exactly what I was thinking.
Hello all,
I called Governor Crist's office and someone there suggested we all call Governor Ted Strickland of Ohio's office because Ohio ma end up with jurisdiction. You can reach him at 614-466-3555.
I just got off the phone with someone at his office. She didn't know what to say.