Fathima Rifqa Bary
Jesus, during the time He walked this earth, had a habit of saying exactly what people didn't want to hear. For example, to those who viewed His presence as a sign that peace would soon come He quoted the prophet Micah when He said, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'" He had no interest in being considered the original hippie.
His words come to mind when considering the sad case of Fathima Rifqa Bary. She's just turned seventeen, an age when the greatest concern a young woman should face is what dress to wear to the prom. Instead, she's in an Orlando courtroom pleading not to be sent home to Ohio with her parents, which she asserts would be a death sentence as her Muslim parents will murder her in the name of family honor for having become a Christian.
The case is murky, to say the least. Bary ran away from home in New Albany, Ohio, hitchhiked to a nearby town where there was a Greyhound station, and rode the bus to Orlando where she went to the home of a pastor she had been in communication with via Facebook. Although reports vary, the preponderance of information indicates Bary became a Christian independent of the church in Florida, connecting with them only after her conversion. The pastor and his family took her in, he contacted authorities about the matter, enter lawyers and state workers. Bary's parents, who did not file a missing persons report until ten days after she left home, now want her back and deny ever threatening her. It is, as they say, a mess.
Since the proceedings are viewable only from afar as filtered through the news media, making definitive statements is impossible. That said, there are immutable truths at play here that can be spoken of with clarity.
Yes, honor killings -- and can there be a greater oxymoron than attaching the word "honor" to murder for the most selfish of reasons -- happen in this country. Whether Bary is correct in believing her life is in danger, or she is the victim of her own teenage raging emotions reading far more sinister intent in parent-daughter conflict, particularly in an area as sensitive as a Muslim converting to Christianity, than is actually the case is unknown. This duly noted, she is correct in that at bare minimum her faith is and will continue to be a source of conflict between her and her devout Muslim parents, a conflict that will never be resolved.
There is no reconciliation of Christ between His being Who He says He is and the Islamic teaching that Christ was, albeit a prophet, not the Son of God. This isn't a slam against Islam. It is what it is, as the hackneyed expression goes. Rather, this is simple doctrinal truth. There is no common ground. None.
There is no reason to believe Bary's conversion is insincere. Even the flightiest of teens isn't going to put herself into what she's going through on the basis of something that sounds like it might be a good idea.
Hearing her speak on the matter (link here), she doesn't come across as someone spinning a yarn. Bary sounds genuinely terrified to go home. Justified? Possibly. Do all parties, including her parents, need all the love and prayerful support we can offer? Undoubtedly. While it's more than unlikely this story will have a fully happy ending, one can pray that Fathima Rifqa Bary will find the freedom to follow the Jesus she loves in peace. And safety.
Comments
Islam mandates death as the punishment for apostasy. Although Muslims will deny this to infidels if they can get away with it, any study of the Islamic doctrines concerning leaving Islam will confirm that this child's life is in great danger. SHe must be protected. Freedom of religion must prevail in the land of the free.
I share the same first name as the ignorant commentator before me. I worked for Red Cross, and worked in Sri Lanka for 6 years. Sri Lankan Muslims are extremely liberal, and you find a very few Sri Lankan women wearing a head scarf. Honour killings don't exist in Buddhist Sri Lanka, not even among their Muslims.
In Sri Lanka - I will kill you is a common warning used by all. None ends up killing, just the terminolgy. This girl knows it well but she is using it for sympathy, whtever and perhaphs to get out of home for good. The parents should just let her go and fetch on her own.
It is not true that the parents waited ten days to file a report. They went to the police the morning of the 20th, after assuming that she had snuck out again and was at a sleepover the 19th. The Ohio Attorney General issued flyers, an Amber Alert was issued, etc. All verifiable.
It was Pastor Lorenz who waited two weeks plus to tell authorities that he had an interstate runaway in his home.
I am the attorney representing the child's mother.
I am a sri Lankan Muslim and I feel this is a case of a confused teenager trying to come to grips of a traditional SL upbringing in the free and wild America.
Muslims believe in Jeses as a Prohpet of God (not the son of God or God). The coming of Prohet Muhammed as the final messenger is revealed in the old testament of the bible. There is a lot of propoganda and enticing by the christians as they can see their numbers receeding in comparision to the daily increase of reverts to Islam. The truth will prevail. I pray to God (Allah) to guide this girl and her family in the correct path. Aameen!
In Sri Lankan English terms:
I will kill you or I will slaughter you = I will punsish you
Its true!
Remind me to mow the AstroTurf this morning. That said, thank you to everyone for thus far keeping the conversation civil.
Anyway... Mr. McCarthy: If you have links to verify your statements, should you send them to me at the e-mail address listed in my bio on this site and I will make the appropriate corrections. It's the way I roll.
Also, please verify your identity. Not to sound cynical, but this is the Internet.
Finally, should Fathima be returned to her parents can you verify she will be allowed to freely practice her religious beliefs by her family?
I pray that this girl will be protected and allowed to be emancipated, and continue practicing her beliefs in worshipping Jesus Christ, who is God Almighty. Maybe not all Muslims are militant, but some are, and they do kill people who turn to Christianity.
Praise be to the Lord Jesus Christ, the only true God and Savior ...
If Muslims don't want their children "confused" by an upbringing in a "free and wild America", what EXACTLY are they doing here...and by that I am using the popular bewildered westerner-speak where EXACTLY = THE HEck. Give me a break. It's like taking kids to the movies when you don't want to expose them to popcorn. What about those two girls in Texas last year? They aren't breathing right now. Sounds like their father didn't get the "I will kill you = I will punish you" memo. So you can say this girl is crying "wolf" all you want. And as for the pastor waiting a couple of weeks to report it? I guess it's not everyday a child shows up on your doorstep as a refugee from her own family...more common that we find these kids dead after the fact. I'm sorry, Muslim community. Looks like this one got away.
Sahih Muslim Book 019, Number 4457 wrote: The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) used not to kill the children, so thou shouldst not kill them unless you could know what Khadir had known about the child he killed, or you could distinguish between a child who would grow up to he a believer (and a child who would grow up to be a non-believer), so that you killed the (prospective) non-believer and left the (prospective) believer aside.
‘Umdat al-Salik o1.1-2.
“Retaliation is obligatory against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right.” However, “not subject to retaliation” is “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring.” In other words, someone who kills his child incurs no legal penalty under Islamic law.
Islamic Verses, please read the following from Sahih Bukhari Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57:
Narrated 'Ikrima: Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"
Your move!
This girl is from a Sri Lankan Muslim family. They are the most liberal Muslims in the world due to their faith being based on the values of Moors who traded with Rome, Greece, India & China. The type of killing she describes is unheard of among Lankan Muslims but the threat of being shipped to her relatives abroad to be "deprogrammed" from her western ways is plausible. I suspect this has more to do with her wanting to date boys than anything else. U.S. court should emancipate the minor as long as there isn't some pervy older boyfriend behind all this.
1. She can't come back to Sri Lanka because what exactly!??
2. She's not brought up in Sri Lanka, I'm not sure she understands anything about Sri Lanka even, the country assembles various Christian groups and cults and no questions and threats directed at anyone. There are many examples of Sri Lankans converting to other religions e.g. Cricketer Thilekeratne Dilshan who was Tuan Dilshan (Muslim) before. Our own Mr. president's lady is a catholic while the HH is a Buddhist.
3. Like many other Sri Lankans pointed out, I will kill you, means very locale to Sri Lankans, just spill the beans or something. In Sri Lanka its common for parents to interrogate this way when they suspect their children of something bad e.g. drugs, stealing or even a bad relationship, she's only 17 after all. Quiet frankly we could find a list of such statements used by Americans also and to find that means nothing.
4. She's putting her parents to shame, not because she converted but for ACCUSING them of
-tmorgan
"This girl is from a Sri Lankan Muslim family. They are the most liberal Muslims in the world due to their faith being based on the values of Moors who traded with Rome, Greece, India & China. The type of killing she describes is unheard of among Lankan Muslims but the threat of being shipped to her relatives abroad to be "deprogrammed" from her western ways is plausible. I suspect this has more to do with her wanting to date boys than anything else. U.S. court should emancipate the minor as long as there isn't some pervy older boyfriend behind all this."
-You have an absolutely pathetic way of thinking if you think this could actually all be caused by some boy she wants to date.
wanting her dead. Sri Lankans are hard working and they work even harder for their children. For whatever reasons they came to America, it didn’t come with ease so they genuinely worked hard (But it’s so unfortunate to see their destruction in this manner, again not because their daughter converted but for them being victims for falsely accused by their own daughter).
I won’t say she's lying as I don’t know Rifqa or her parents. What I'd say is for me she sounds and looks like she's brain-washed and made-believe that her parent will hurt her, God Knows! but she's only 17. I think someone wants her to hit headlines and be satisfied watching that. Radicalism!
Again which Church is she with?
Keep it civil and respectful, everyone.
Christrian and Catholic Proslytization is not something new that we have heard, seen and experienced back home in Sri Lanka through the Colonial times. It is also common acoss the globe in conflict zones of war and refugees. The recent Tamil Tiger war in Sri Lanka revealed Christian Red Cross workers n their uniforms assisting the LTTE in tirturing their own kids for wanting to leave the area where they were bing held as human shields. A thoroigh investigation must be carried out to ascertain wheher the young lady was coerced by the preacher luring her with the gooides of a modern western lifestyle.
Sri Lankan muslims do not carry out honor killings! hahaha...this chick is severally confused.
Sri Lankans Muslims Don't Kill For Honor?
YOU LIE! How can you even dare spew that garbage?
Rifqa Bary hails from Sri Lanka, where the Shafi’i school of Islamic jurisprudence prevails. A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law directs that “when a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes from Islam, he deserves to be killed... it is obligatory for the caliph ... to ask him to repent and return to Islam. If he does, it is accepted from him, but if he refuses, he is immediately killed.” ('Umdat al-Salik o8.1-2).
this child is a friend of our family. She does not lie and is in fact one of the most honest and loving young ladies we have ever met. She tutors children in school subjects free of charge, she offers to help in any way she can with anyone. She has indeed been punished already. What parent would wait 10 days to file a missing persons report? Does that sound like they wanted her back? I believe this child is in grave, grave danger and it is my hope that the autorities will keep her in foster care in Florida where she is save. Do any of you know that one of her eyes has been damaged so bad that she can't see out of it? wonder how that happend??
I just saw this story on ABC news, and now the whole country knows. I immediately began to cry and pray for her. As a Christian my heart wants to reach out to her and I cam here to my comp to find a way to post something that may reach her. I am here to help her any way I can.
Some people posted that with her Muslim background people will not care enough about her. Wrong! I'm here to tell you all us Christians, and even a lot of non-Christians, including Jews and even atheists, care about her because we are Americans and we believe in religious freedom and the value of a life. (most of us). Freedom of Religion was the #1 reason we came here to start the United States of America. (I'm descended from those original Americans). So I want her to know she has millions of people out here who would help her, take her in, help her hide or find a safe place, and we are praying for her.
I'll adopt her if that's what it takes, and give her a good education.
I'm not a Christian, and Deb's right. As AMERICANS, each and every one of us should be ready to make a stand for this little girl. Joanna is the second person I have heard from this girls community who knows her and says she isn't lying. Freedom of religion is a right we have, and as long as it's exercised peacefully and non-violently, it should be respected. I'm not sure if this girl or her family's status is illegal or not, and as much as I am an advocate for CLOSED BORDERS and kicking every illegal to the curb, I must say that those like this child are the ones this country was designed to take in and protect...the legitimate refugee. If the courts find this girl's accusations against her family are valid, I don't think we should stop with emancipation...or incarceration. I'm thinking DEPORTATION. Give us your tired, your poor, and your hungry...and keep your maniacal murderous zealots. Thanks.
I have known hundreds of muslims in my humble native country of Burma. Most of them are moderate by any standard. Even then, I have never seen a muslim woman allowed to marry a non-muslim man that the women loved. The women's families, by hook or crook, alwasy broke up the relationships. So I believe this girl's story that her father and brothers threaten her. Now the father is lying to the police. Hook them up to the lie-detector to see if they are telling the truth or not.
In 49 of the 50 Muslim countries in the world, Sharia law or a combination with common law is practiced.
Sharia law is based on the Quran and Hadith (recoded actions of Mohamed) Muslim jurists are proud of the intact nature of Islamic laws, unchanged for 1400 years.
So thinking of the above, consider this:
In the Qur'an the prophet Mohamed tells a story about Moses (A story not found in the bible) where Moses seeks to learn about Islam from a Servant of Allah, all knowledgeable in the ways of Allah.
At one point in the story Moses witnesses the Servant of Allah killing a young child, and Moses says: (Quran 18:74) "...Why did you kill such an innocent person, who did not kill another person?...” The servant of Allah explains (Quran 18:80) “...his parents were good believers, and we saw that he was going to burden them with his transgression and DISBELIEF...”
(Please! Verify these quotes! Google the Quranic verses or look them up in a Quran, I assure you they are legit)
Pray for this very brave possible martyr for Christ, pray for her safety, pray that she is NOT given to her father to kill. Honor Killings ARE REAL! There have been many of them in the US and Canada, most are dismissed by the authorities as 'other' crimes, if the bodies are ever discovered. Many times the line is "she was sent back (home country) to marry." It does not matter if the person is male or female, you convert, you are dead.
No matter HOW 'worldly' or secular or liberal a Muslim may appear, there is that hard rock in the center. Islam is the only religion that teaches "death" and submission, and lies are okay if it is to further Islam.
Dear Yasmin,
Your religion espouses violence on earth to promote itself. It is supported by verses in the Koran. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, died for you, forgives and loves you, if you accept Him. It is a religion of love and forgiveness verses death and self-righteousness. As Christians, we love our enemies and do everything to help them; Muslims must kill their enemies. Your soul matters, Yasmin, and I pray that you have a bible nearby and the Holy Spirit leads you to one.
I watched the video of this girl and she really seems scared to go back to her family because she would get killed for believing in Jesus.I truly believe that she is scared and that she isn't making this up as people think she is crying "wolf".I am a Christian and a pastor's kid and this is shocking,sad and very scary that someone that is so set in their own beliefs and the so called "religion" that they profess to believe in,would actually threaten their own child!!If she is truly a Chistian,then she needs to be with people who believe the way she does and not like her radical parents.
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