Rifqa Bary, cause celeb for US right wing groups

I ask for media attention on this little Rifqa girl that the testimony of Jesus will go to Cnn, will go to talk shows…

Let’s hope not, other than facts and facts only.

This is some of the craziest religious right stuff I have ever heard and right in the middle of all of it is Lou Engle, who recently graced TheCry in Vancouver with his militancy.  Rifqa Bary participates as centrepiece.The end of the video degenerates into mayhem and pandemonium.

This is a conference call with US National Day of Prayer Task Force who are doing everything possible to reinforce lies and anti-Muslim beliefs using a 17 year old runaway named Rifqa Bary.

This young lady from Ohio ran away from home after corresponding with some religious right neo-charismatics online. With their help she wound up in the home of independent minister Blake Lorenz - where as a minor they did not report her to the proper authorities.

She was finally reported and put in a foster home while her claims of having to be honour killed by her Muslim parents for her embracing of Jesus Christ caught on with key figures in the religious right movement. She appears to know little of of Sri Lanka and faith groups there. The country is mostly Buddist (69%) with Hindu, Muslim and Christian faiths and unspecified making up the rest of the population religions

As the Florida minister enlisted others to try to make her a martyr, court papers were filed to keep her from being sent home or back to Ohio. It is apparent they have no little care for this teen and certainly not for her parents.

Both Ohio and Florida investigated. When push came to shove, it was the religious right who asked and received a 10 day sealing of the findings. When the findings were released, it turned out Ms. Bary had lied about how she got to Florida, about her parents knowledge of her ‘Christianity, and their awareness and willingness to permit her to practise it.

In her interview in the FDLE’s investigation, Bary said her father threatened her by holding her laptop over her head, saying he was going to kill her. Her father denied threatening her. He said he grabbed the laptop and lifted it to throw it, but reconsidered because it was expensive.

Bary also said her father once hit her in the face for interrupting a conversation, and on another occasion hit her for not wanting to wear the Islamic head scarf called the hijab, but that he hadn’t hit her since middle school. Her father denied ever having hit her. Her mother and her brother said they had never seen him hit her. A spokesman at the school district where the girl goes to school told the FDLE investigators that no abuse or suspected abuse was ever reported.

Bary told investigators that she had told a teacher at her school about her fears and that the teacher offered her home as a haven. The teacher told investigators that she made the offer because Bary had told her she was uncomfortable with some of the parties her older brother was having when their parents weren’t home.

Bary told investigators that she hitchhiked to the Greyhound station. One of her friends, Brian M. Williams, told FDLE that he picked her up from another friend’s house and took her to the bus.

Bary told investigators she used money she had saved from her part-time job at a Chinese restaurant to buy her bus ticket. But someone in Orlando bought the ticket, according to the report, using “a fictitious name.”

Bary told investigators that her parents didn’t know that she was a cheerleader. Her father told the FDLE investigators that he knew about her cheer leading, approved of it, and sometimes took her to practice. In the Bary home in Ohio, the report noted, pictures of the girl in her cheer leading uniform were “prominently displayed in the family living room.”

It appears as if just about every claim made by right-wing activists in this case has turned out to be unsubstantiated according the FDLE investigation, which concluded that there is no evidence of any abuse and no indication that she’s in danger if she is returned to her Muslim parents in Ohio.

That hasn’t stopped The Liberty Council, the Family Security Council, Family Research Council and every 3rd rate religious right group including NAR from jumping into the court case fray on whether or not to give jurisdiction to Ohio, investigations from two states be damned.

Can anyone say Elian Gonzalez?

Shortly after the investigative documents were unsealed, there was another bombshell to the religious right groups. Craig McCarthy, an attorney in the case wrote a piece in the Tampa Bay paper. He is an evangelical. He represented Ms. Bary’s parents and clearly explains why.

For now the Florida judge has ordered mediation, there will be a pre-trial hearing September 29th. Both state governors have made statements. I grieve for this young woman. I grieve for her parents who are smeared by the religious right no matter what they say or do.
Rifqa has a shaky understanding of Islam and spouts what her internet and new Florida neo-charismatic friends have told her. She doesn’t grasp orthodox Christianity, how can she when she was so easily lured online by an agenda driven self-proclaimed evangelist?
At least the court has ordered Brian Lorenzo and his wife not to have contact with her. They have not been charged for harbouring a minor.

While she may get over the attention and brainwashing and her life back on track, what is she going to think 5 or 10 years down the road when being the centre piece of political drama is long over and Rifqa has time to reflect on the neo-charismatic cult she has embraced as an impressionable teen?
Does she keep in touch with Ohio friends and classmates or are they secondary to the attention she is receiving from special interest groups for thier anti-Islam cause? She is not a martyr. She is a set up convenience.

Right Wing Watch has full coverage of her strange and sorry story.

Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion has one of the better pieces on Ms. Bary and the anti-Muslim sentiment being whipped up by her ‘Christian handlers.’ The damage done between her and her parents may not be healed anytime soon, those inserting themselves into this situation and making it their holy war don’t intend to lose, no matter who they sacrifice.

Christianity Today has sounded a strong note of caution for readers on Rifqa Bary’s story.

Update: A Florida judge has ordered Ms. Bary back to Ohio.