As anyone knows, many teenagers get afflicted with "I Hate My Parents" or "I Want To Live On My Own" diseases during the course of their slow maturation to adulthood. Most of the time, parents deal with these afflictions well enough, and we don't have too many teenagers running away from home.
When they do run away from home, and are eventually located, they are returned to the family if they are under 18 years old. And such would likely be the case for one Ohio runaway who recently ran off to Florida.
Ohio child welfare officials have already concluded it's safe for Rifqa [Bary] to return. They want to place the girl in therapy and reunite her with her family.
But when the teenager [1] has a Muslim family, [2] converted to Christianity, and [3] got the politicians' attention in Florida, the resolution of this family dispute isn't so straightforward.
A whole lot of Florida Republicans have decided [1] to rechannel their past idiocies on "issues" like Elian Gonzalez and Terri Schiavo, and [2] to play around with the previously despised idea of Hillary Clinton to give children rights over their parents.
Rifqa Bary recently turned 17 years old. By law, she would be typically subject to her parents' control. She immigrated several years ago with her Muslim family from Sri Lanka to Ohio in order to get her life-saving medical treatment. They have allowed her to participate in American society, including participation in high-school cheerleading.
But Rifqa was not happy at home. She ran away earlier this year. Her family promptly reported her disappearance. She was eventually located living with a Christian pastor and his family in Florida. The Bary family then began extradition proceedings to get their daughter back to Ohio and to the home.
So far, so ordinary. But then, Faux News decided that this was no simple case of a child runaway. Instead, it boldly announced that "Muslim Teen Who Converted to Christianity Says Family Threatened to Kill Her."
Wow! We can all agree that if your family threatens to kill you, then you shouldn't have to return to that family. The USA is at least that civilized.
But that old saying "you can't judge a story by its cover" certainly applies to Fox News. Here is all what Rifqa alleges according to that article:
[She] is worried her relatives will do something drastic . . . . "They have to kill me because I'm a Christian. It's an honor (issue)."
"She says her life is in danger and she could be killed in an honor killing," . . .
The actual article never states that Rifqa accused her family of threating to kill her. Instead, it underscores her belief that under Islamic law, any Christian convert must be killed by her family. Big difference, especially when [1] only a minority of Muslims in the world are that crazy, and [2] her father denies it:
Her father denied his daughter's allegations . . . saying he never threatened to kill his daughter because she rejected Islam.
Well, without an acutal threat of death, the Florida judge seemingly had an easy case to decide in the extradition hearing. As Faux News moaned, "Court Expected to Send Runaway Teen Home Despite Muslim Honor Killing Fears."
A 17-year-old girl who fled to Florida after converting from Islam to Christianity will almost certainly be forced to return home to Ohio, experts say, despite her fears that she will become the victim of an honor killing for abandoning her parents' faith. . . . [S]everal legal experts contacted by FOXNews.com say the girl is bound to be sent back to Ohio.
This time, the web report included a link to a YouTube video presenting Rifqa's statements about her fears about her family and Islam, summarized as:
In an emotional six-minute interview . . . Rifqa . . . said she expects to be killed if she is forced to return to Ohio. "If I had stayed in Ohio, I wouldn't be alive," she said. "In 150 generations in family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first — imagine the honor in killing me. There is great honor in that, because if they love Allah more than me, they have to do it. It's in the Koran." . . . She referred to previous victims of so-called honor killings, in which young Muslim women were murdered for bringing dishonor to their families. "They love God more than me, they have to do this . . . . I'm fighting for my life. You guys don't understand. . . I want to worship Jesus freely, that's what I want. I don't want to die."
Curiously, in a couple of places in the video, Rifqa states that her father threatened to kill her. But for some reason - perhaps lack of credibility - Faux News did not summarize that in its report. Instead its focus was the (presumed) credibility of a young Christian girl being terrorized into believing her Muslim family was out to get her because, well, that's just what Muslims do. You dispute that? *"You just don't understand. You just don't UNDERSTAND!"*
Well-founded fears or just another teenager lashing out at her misunderstood parents? Or an impressionable young girl who got brainwashed by an anti-Muslim Christian preacher? You be the "fair and balanced" judge of that. This video of the Bary family, who calmly deny Rifqa's allegations, should be of assistance.
So back to the extradition hearing. Did it turn out like you expected? Well, remember now, this is happening in Florida, the land of Elian Gonzalez and Terri Schiavo right-wing crazy politics. Let's just say Faux News was giddy to announce "Runaway Christian Convert to Stay in Florida for Now, Judge Rules."
According to the "expert" Faux located, the judge essentially prevented a death sentence from being handed down upon Rifqa.
Dr. Phyllis Chesler, an author and professor of psychology at the Richmond College of the City University of New York, said she believes Bary will be in danger if she is sent back to her parents.
"Anyone who converts from Islam is considered an apostate, and apostasy is a capital crime. . . . If she is returned to her family, if she is lucky, they will isolate her, beat her, threaten her, and if she is not 'persuaded' to return to Islam, they will kill her. They have no choice."
Chesler, who wrote "Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?" for Middle East Quarterly, said the tradition of such slayings is not fully understood by most Americans, including those in law enforcement.
"She escaped from her family's brutal tyranny and shamed her family further through public exposure," Chesler said. "Muslim girls and women are killed for far less."
Wow, that's quite a charge to levy against the Muslim religion and its more than one billion adherents. Let's take a look at Chesler's scholarship in her report - Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence? - to see how well she supports her conclusion that
As long as Islamist advocacy groups continue to obfuscate the problem, and government and police officials accept their inaccurate versions of reality, women will continue to be killed for honor in the West; such murders may even accelerate. Unchecked by Western law, their blood will be on society's hands.
Okay, so she believes Muslim "honor killings" in America are rampant and out of control. Well, if you consider 14 honor killings in 15 - that's fifteen - years to be a huge problem. Given that Chesler also notes that about 30,000 murders have occurred due to domestic violence in the same 15 year period, it doesn't seem like 1 "honor" killing per year is that significant.
But let's hear from another expert - a local reporter who covered the extradition hearing - to see how well-founded he thought the allegations of impending death and doom were. The article's title, "Anti-Muslim bias obvious in Fathima Rifqa Bary case," doesn't sound like what Chesler and Faux report.
[I]n a rather surprising twist, . . . [the judge] decided to investigate Ohio. And so the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is off to determine her survival chances there. . . . It appeared [Ohio] had worked out a good compromise plan, allowing Rifqa to go into foster care while they ensured her safety. If there is evidence that the folks in Ohio are incompetent and need Florida's assistance, I would like to hear it.
[Her father] sends her to a top high school, where she has excelled and where she is a cheerleader. . . . Somehow I can't imagine a Muslim extremist allowing his daughter to wear short skirts and shake pompoms in frot of a crowd of infidels. . . . Yet last month — long after learning she had become a Christian — he suddenly decided to kill her over it. . . . By coincidence, her flight apparently followed a confrontation with her mother over her coming home late.
The judge set the subsequent hearing for today, September 3. Apparently Rifqa's lawyer was not satisfied that the client would remain in Florida after that date based on the "evidence" so far. So, now he's playing the Bary-Family-As-Al-Qaeda-Terrorists card. Seriously, the Attorney Targets Alleged Terror Ties in Case of Runaway Girl."
[Rifqa's] attorney claims that [she] should not be returned to the custody of her parents . . . because of their connection to the Noor Islamic Cultural Center near Columbus, Ohio.
Okay, so that family you saw on the video seems so kind and innocent and loving. And, really, judge, you don't believe that all Islam wants to kill their Christian converts? Okay, then, but what if I told you that the family is associating with the evil-doer terrorist type of Muslims?
"The leader of the mosque, Dr. Hany Saqr, was previously an imam for another area mosque at the same time the largest known Al Qaeda cell in the U.S. since 9/11 was operating out of the mosque."
"Additionally, Dr. Saqr was identified in exhibits submitted by the Department of Justice in a recent terrorism finance trial in Texas as being one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America — an international organization responsible for birthing virtually every Islamic terrorist organization in the world, including Al Qaeda."
But wait! There's another Muslim terrorist you need to know about:
The center also is affiliated with Dr. Salah Sultan, a "cleric alleged photographed with terrorist leaders designated as such by the U.S. government."
So, the family are presumed murderous terrorists because they go to a mosque where a couple of its leaders have had alleged associations with other bad people. I see the logic. If a Catholic attended a church where the priest molested kids, that makes that Catholic a presumed pedophile? Such crazy, twisted logic could only be made by someone who really hates that religion. Although Rifqa's lawyer denies it:
Stemberger, who is seeking to obtain residence for Bary in Florida, says the claims made in his memorandum is not "a case" against Islam. "The vast majority of Muslims in this country are peaceful and law-abiding citizens," Stemberger said Monday. "Her family are members of this mosque . . . That's the problem."
No. That's not the problem at all. The problem is that a private affair has become a very public, anti-Muslim hatefest because a whole lot of people want to drive the narrative that Muslims want to kill Christians, hate America and its "freedoms," and can't help themselves when an attractive, vulnerable-looking young girl buys wholesale into that narrative.
But as we started this story, the resolution should simply be what happens to virtually all minor runaways who are caught:
Eric Fenner, executive director of Franklin County Child Services in Columbus, Ohio, said Wednesday that his agency has investigated the girl's complaints and believe she can safely return home.
"We think by getting the family with a therapist . . . hopefully, we can salvage this family," he said.
*****
As a footnote, I am personally agnostic as to whether Rifqa should be required to return to her family. In my humble opinion, she honestly believes her life is in danger, but unreasonably so, due to her adoption of crazy beliefs about the Muslim religion. But as noted earlier, the law is absolutely clear that she must return. Whether that actually happens is another story.