You really need to watch the six-minute video at the end of this post. It's a short interview with Fathima Rifqa Bary, the 17 year old Ohio girl who converted from Islam to Christianity, and who recently ran away from home, claiming that her father will murder her to save the family's "honor" lost when she left Islam.
Fox News reports that a Florida court today is likely to send her back to her Ohio family -- which she fears will kill her for apostasizing. It is impossible to say from afar how much this girl has been manipulated, and how realistic her fears are. Perhaps she's making it up (her family says so). Perhaps she's manipulating others, or being manipulated. What seems clear to me from watching the video is that this teenage girl is scared out of her wits. We know that honor killings happen. Last year in suburban Dallas, an Egyptian Muslim father killed his two teenage daughters, Amina and Sarah (Rifqa refers to them briefly on the video below); he is still at large. He had been threatening them with violence, friends and family say, because he thought they were becoming too Westernized.
Back then, I spoke to a reporter who covered the girls' funeral at a local mosque. The reporter told me it was shocking to hear the imam's funeral sermon focus on how parents need to control their children more. And, I spoke two years ago to a young adult Christian convert from a Southeast Asian Muslim nation, a journalist who lived every single day in fear of his life because of having left Islam. It was not an idle or theoretical threat for him. Rifqa ("Rebecca") Bary may not literally be in danger, but it is by no means out of the question. Honor killings are not a figment of anybody's imagination. You cannot watch this video of her without being deeply impressed by how frightened she is. It would be cruel to send her back to her family, at least at this point. I don't know that the law has any choice, given that she's not a citizen. But I tell you, I would give her the benefit of the doubt, based on what we know now -- and I would give her sanctuary too, in defiance of the law. (See update below -- Bary is safe for now, per court order)
Here's the key portion of the interview. But really, you should watch it yourself. The religion element aside, how can you send a teenager girl this frightened of domestic violence back into a situation in which, mistakenly or not, she fears for her life? I don't get it. Here is a live blog from the hearing going on right now (Friday afternoon) in Florida court.
Reporter: So what do you want at this point now?Bary (emotionally): I want to be with [the church people in Florida]. I want to be free from my parents. I want ... I want to be free. I want to worship Jesus! I want to go to church on Sundays, and read my Bible, and say Jesus is alive whenever I want to! You guys talk about religious freedom? No! I don't have that. I want to be here, I want to worship Jesus freely. I don't want to die.
UPDATE: Thank God, the Florida court has ordered that Bary stay in Florida while an investigation of her family takes place. She's safe for now.
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I do agree it is possible. My older sister was very adept at convincing people my parents were ogres if it served her interest to do so. She had a background in speech and a naturally talent for dramatics. After a car-wreck the cops made my parents promise not to hurt her as they were convinced by her statements they were capable of that. Teenage girls can be very adept at fake shows of frenetic emotion. (My sister has grown up and repented of all that, but I think she still could be manipulative if she really wanted to be)
Despite that I would have to concede that none of the teenage girls I knew took a journey of hundreds of miles to get away from their parents. That is a bit extreme. So it's possible she is telling the truth as she understands it. It also possible she is lying, but that she still shouldn't be with her parents. That the relationship has become so adversarial it's not good for anyone anymore.
From Time:
From later in the article, this is priceless:
David TC -- I was not talking about all people killed by all people for being gay. Nor about all people being assaulted or otherwise harmed for being gay.
I was talking about people specifically being killed BY THEIR PARENTS for being gay. That is the relevant comparison. So no, I don't know the stats, nor do I think they've been so widely publicized that I should know them. Nor do I think that it's some great symptom either of my lack of empathy, or cultural sickness, that I don't know offhand the breakdown of numbers for one particular crime committed by people related to the victims in a certain way, committed for a certain reason. That's actually a pretty obscure fact. Even if they were widely publicized when they occurred and I had read about them, I still wouldn't know the numbers unless for some reason I kept track on my own, which is a pretty unusual thing for people with no direct connection to something to do.
So, since as you may have noticed, I wasn't asserting anything, but asking -- do you know the statistics?
I don't know the statistics, except to the extent that no one in America has apparently ever been killed for being an apostate ex-Muslim. Seriously, we have no examples. (Yaser Said is not an example of that even if what is alleged is true.) So the statistic there is 0.
And I pointed out that, despite what religious people seem to assume, almost no one is attacked, and essentially no one is murdered, for their religious beliefs at all. And those attacks are almost always 'anti-religion the victim is a member of', not 'pro-religion the victim switched away from', as far as I can tell.
Whereas there is at least one example of a (step-)father killing his son because his son was gay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steen_Fenrich
And there's Ronnie Antonio Paris, a three year old accidentally beaten to death because his father was afraid he was a 'sissy'.
She is so fake she is not even crying right cuz in her heart she knows that she is lying to her teeth she dont know what is she talking about she is pointing on someone else to explain the honer killing and how many friends got killed so far all she wants is publicity and she will regret this later in her life I am a muslim and I dont kill anybody just because someone get convert hey u can follow whoever u want to follow just dont make up stories and blame islam for all of your problems.
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