Rifqa Bary's lawyer John Stemberger just held a press conference and released these two pdfs. One is Rifqa's own statement, and the other details the jihadist ties of the Noor Islamic Center in Columbus, Ohio, the mosque of Rifqa's parents. I was on the conference call, and heard Stemberger make the case that Rifqa's parents attend a mosque with multiple links to jihadists, thus lending credence to her claim that she would be in grave danger if returned to their custody. Rifqa's own affidavit underscores this. Pamela has a transcription over at Atlas Shrugs:
15. I became a Christian on Friday, November 18, 2005 at the Korean United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio;16. I hid my Christian faith from my parents as best as I could and had to sneak around to attend Christian campus meetings, I also hid my Bible at home in various locations;
17. In about 2007 my father discovered a copy of a book entitled the "Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren that I hid in my bedroom. My father had a serious talk with me about the importance of retaining the Islamic blood line in my family but I did not tell him about my conversion;
18. In June of 2009 my father confronted me with several questions about whether I had become a Christian, whether I was baptized, if I was going to church. Out of fear I remained silent;
19. Then my father told me that he received numerous emails and phone calls from the leaders of the Noor Center community who informed him that he needed to deal with this matter immediately;
20. In a fit of anger that I had never seen before in my life, he picked up my lap top, waived it over my head as if to strike me with it and said "if you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me! You are no longer my daughter." I continued to remain silent and then he said to me even more angry then before, I will kill you! Tell me the truth!"
21. On July 17, 2009, my mother confronted me about another Christian book she discovered that I hid in my bedroom. She had just spoken with my father was on the phone who was out of town. She was very upset, in tears, and almost grieving and told me I was going to have to be sent back to Sri Lanka to be dealt with.
Read it all. Pamela also has audio of the press conference, which is remarkable for the exceedingly contentious and leading questions asked by the assembled "journalists." Don't miss it.
"I became a Christian on Friday, November 18, 2005 at the Korean United Methodist Church ..."
Oh those Koreans!
"....she will have to be sent back to Sri Lanka to be dealt with...."
Her father sounds like a James Bond villain not a normal human father.
Another blow to the "We all worship the same God," mantra? They don't seem to like Jesus, nor come to think of it Israel; the sons of their 'cousin' Jacob. Often I wonder were their father Abraham to visit Mecca, would the old Jew be stoned or beheaded?
Robert, one of the people mentioned in Mr. Stemberger's memorandum (page 16) is none other than the infamous Salam Al-Marayati, who recently wrote the article attacking Rifka on the Huffington Post blog. You, Hugh, and Andrew Bostom rightly took him apart for it, but he spoke at the Noor Center last year.
Mr. Stemberger's list of characters associated with the Noor Center reads like a rogue's gallery.
You ask an important question Mr. Klein. We are repeatedly assured by Islamic apologists that Muslims worship the same God as Christians, and hence are our spiritual brethren. Of course, it is only Christians that are instructed in this doctrine, never the Muslims. Of course, the Christians in Egypt, Sudan, and Iraq have yet to see this spiritual kinship from the Muslims. Now whether Muslims worship the same God as Christians, and I'm inclined to believe they do, in some very general sense as I view Islam as ultimately a Christian heresy, it doesn't matter. Islam views Christianity as a deliberate distortion of the primal Islamic religion, and thus it only deserves the barest of tolerance (as the Christians in the Middle East know all the well). The important thing is for Christians is to realise the farce that is the one-way "interfaith" dialogue, in which Christians grovel before the Muslims and join in the exaltation of Islam's historic greatness and spiritual genius. The modern interfaith movement serves no other purpose then the conditioning of Jews and Christians accept their eventual dhimmi status.
Rifqa has my support and I will be e-mailing governor Crist ( Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com)
tonight.The implications have gone far beyond
Rifqa now.If Rifqa loses and is hurt in any
way it will send a message to Muslims all over
the : 1st, America is a push over and
rates no respect, 2nd, America could not
protect an innocent girl right in their own
country how are they going to protect girls
and women in places like Iraq who want loosen
the bonds they are held in by the Muslim
religion.
Lots of notorious jihadists and sharia supremacists among Noor's membership and speakers. An important part of the Noor Memo Law pdf (see Robert's link for it, above) shows the connections between Dr. Sultan of the Noor center and Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Sultan has expressed his support for harsh sharia punishments such as stoning for adultery, and his approval of Qaradawi suggests (together with Sultan's views and approval of harsh traditional sharia punishments generally) that he approves of the death penalty for public apostasy, which Qaradawi supports.
There is not direct evidence of Sultan's views on the apostasy punishment, assuming Rifqa's lawyers have done their homework here, perhaps because Sultan has carefully avoided expressing publicly his views on it.
You guys, whatever you believe, please pray for little Rifqa.
Her parents don't have to win. And knowing Jesus, He's got big plans for this little girl. But He still likes to be asked, so please pray for her protection and for the light that is shining on this story to be a beacon for all people who value, seek and yearn for freedom.
This is very, very interesting.
It was argued by some that because Rifqa's mother didn't go about in full burqa and niqab, and her dad is in western style dress, and because Rifqa's parents let her be a cheerleader, that they must be 'moderate' Muslims.
Now it starts to look to me like her dad (and whoever he's in cahoots with) is exactly the opposite - and the appearance of moderation, or of laxity...the pretty westernised-appearing cheerleader daughter at a secular school not an islamic school...might just be...CAMOUFLAGE.
Rifqa, by trying to break free, has busted their cover.
She's exactly and precisely equivalent to the daughter of a Mafia don who's decided to leave the Family and go straight.
How did this young lady do what billions of Muslims are unable to do?
How did she shake off the shackles and chains of Islam to join humanity in the 21st Century?
Is it because she grew up in the West and had access to our information technology (books, computers, etc)?
Perhaps the advocates of Da'wa had better re-think their approach. Perhaps the strategists of population jihad better think twice. The Qur'an and aHadith warn against associating with the kuffar. See what can happen?
This case is so important in that it is an example to other Muslim young people. If Rifqa can escape the certain death that awaits other Muslim apostates, then other Muslims may attempt it.
" Now whether Muslims worship the same God as Christians, and I'm inclined to believe they do, in some very general sense as I view Islam as ultimately a Christian heresy, it doesn't matter."
Virgil,
Your statement above is in error, as Christians and followers of islam are not following the same God. The message is different, to say the least. The god of islam is closer to satan than just a heresy would label the "faith". As there is no fun in islam, there is also no love, and love is the command to be followed by Jesus himself. A basic reading of both texts to compare will show this to be true.
This point may matter to those who look for a clearer path, such as Rifqa, as it clearly has.