Florida has had jurisdiction in the case of Rifqa Bary, the girl who fled from her Ohio home to Florida in fear for her life after she converted from Islam to Christianity and says her father threatened to kill her. But that has only been because Ohio has not filed a case. When I was at the last hearing in Orlando on September 3, her parents’ lawyers were threatening to do so, and now they have.
There seems to be a firm determination to make an example of this poor girl, to show that Muslim girls cannot do this in America — flee their homes and Islam — and expect to get away with it.
“Family of runaway files court complaint,” by Meredith Heagney for the Columbus Dispatch, September 12 (thanks to Pamela, who has a great deal of important and illuminating background information here):
A complaint filed in Franklin County Juvenile Court on behalf of Mohamed and Aysha Bary accuses their 17-year-old daughter, Fathima Rifqa, of being incorrigible.
The girl left her parents’ Northeast Side home on July 19 and took a bus to Orlando, Fla., saying her father will kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity.
She’s now in foster care in Florida, where the 9th Judicial Circuit Court is to determine whether she should stay there or be returned to her parents.
Circuit Judge Daniel P. Dawson determined that he had jurisdiction because no case had been filed in Ohio.
The document filed Tuesday in Franklin County says Rifqa is “habitually disobedient,” comes and goes as she pleases, defies her parents and their rules, and is truant at home and school. Ohio attorneys for the Barys wouldn’t comment on the filing….
These claims are all doubtful. By all accounts Rifqa was a fine student. This should not go unchallenged.
On a related note, Pamela Geller has also spoken with one of Rifqa’s closest friends, and shows how Newsweek’s coverage of this case has been — surprise! — biased and inaccurate. See her article about it here.