Chesler Chronicles

August 21st, 2009 2:00 pm

Justice in Florida for Rifqa Bary

Breaking News!

The Case Remains in Orlando

Judge Daniel Dawson has just decided that Rifqa Bary’s fate will be decided in his court in Florida. You may read about it here and here. This means that Judge Dawson will hear the case on September 3rd.

It also means that the incredibly brave 17-year-old will remain safe in Florida state custody until that hearing.

I have been doing media interviews all afternoon, from as far away as China. However, this case has not as yet been covered by CNN. As one of my readers has pointed out, Fox has led the national media in their coverage of the case. (Kudos to journalist Joshua Rhett Miller who is always there when it matters).

Hats off to all the warriors who fought in this battle. First, to Rifqa’s lawyer, Rosa Gonzalez–and Blake and Beverly Lorenz, the pastors who initially sheltered her; to the on-the-ground team of activists and bloggers (Andy Bostom, Brigitte Gabriel, Pamela Geller, Jeffrey Imm, Robert Spencer, Dr. Rusty Shackleford, and Tom Trento) who got the word out; to all the blog readers who sent letters to the Florida Governor; to the experts, such as Nonie Darwish and Wafa Sultan who issued statements; and to those whose Rifqa’s lawyer asked to send letters to the judge (that would be my friend and colleague, Ibn Warraq, and myself).

In addition, my hat’s off to Shackleford’s My Pet Jawa. This enterprising soul sent a “plant” to a CAIR meeting when they were deciding what their media strategy should be.

“According to my source who attended the strategy session, CAIR officials handed out copies of this Orlando Sentinel article and want supporters to push the meme that Christians have brainwashed and abducted this gullible teenage girl. They have also instructed supporters to circulate rumors that Rifqa had been carousing with infidel boys and engaged in acts of immorality. This CAIR strategy takes the focus off the near-universal Islamic legal precepts and Quranic injunctions that demand death for apostates and impugns the character of the innocent girl at the center of this controversy who appears to be in genuine fear for her life if she is returned to her parents.”

As soon as the lawyers allow me to do so, I will publish my letter and that of Ibn Warraq’s .

If there are any other thinkers, activists, people of conscience and of faith who were involved in this battle and whom I have failed to mention, please contact me and I will happily add your name.

‘Tis a good day.

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20 Comments

1. Florida: Judge says 17-year-old Christian convert Rifqa Bary must stay in Florida :: Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.):

[...] Justice in Florida for Rifqa Bary – by Phyllis Chesler — follow-up hearing September 3rd – WDBO Local News Blog from Juvenile Court: Rifqa [...]

Aug 21, 2009 - 2:41 pm 2. George Jochnowitz:

Wonderful! As the Chinese proverb says, Don’t fear slow progress; just fear no progress (Bu pa man; jiu pa zhan).
The August 23 issue of The New York Times Magazine has an article by Virginia Heffernan entitled “The Feminist Hawks.” This blog was not mentioned in the report. It should have been.

Aug 22, 2009 - 6:14 am 3. Tel-Chai Nation:

Rifqa Bary spared, and will remain in Florida for…

Good news on the Fathima Rifqa Bary case. Atlas Shrugs reports that the court in Orlando has ruled in her favor:…

Aug 22, 2009 - 12:03 pm 4. sodacrackers:

I do hope and pray that they have plenty of protection for this girl and her lawyers and anyone else helping her. God keep her safe. Thank you, Phyllis for all the good work you do helping us be aware of what it is like to be a woman in many parts of the world today.

Aug 22, 2009 - 12:12 pm 5. JRo:

Great work, team! –and thank you, Phyllis, always, for your intense eloquence and inspiration. I’d love to see the links to the interviews from China, etc. CNN may not yet be carrying these items (shame on them), but who knows whether the ginger treatment in this weekend’s NYT Magazine could mark a turning point….? Too much to hope for, hmmm?

Aug 22, 2009 - 12:32 pm 6. David W. Lincoln:

It is easier to ignore a blind spot, than it is to recognize a blind spot. This, for all intents and purposes, describes the media outlets which are not covering this.

After all, they are in the business of delivering what they think their audience wants, but the only view that is credible is themselves.

I think it was Niebuhr who said that when the self judges itself by itself, it finds itself
to be good.

Also, Phyllis, I see that Ryan Mauro has this
story on his website, worldthreats.com

Aug 22, 2009 - 1:08 pm 7. Dr McCosker:

This is very good news: I will continue praying, here in faraway Australia (where, you may like to know, in March this year, one of our parliamentary backbenchers actually gave a speech informing his fellow members of the House, about the Islamic practice of killing those who leave Islam…I will write to this man and tell him about Rifqa’s case, in hopes that Words may be spoken in high places ). Kudos to Rosa Gonzalez: may holy angels bless, guide and protect her. And I am so pleased that you (Phyllis) and Ibn Warraq were specifically asked by the lawyer to send letters to the judge. I am sure your letters would have told him what he needed to know.

One point that may need to be made very loudly to people and the press (and indeed I’d say Ibn Warraq probably made it to the judge) is that the danger this girl is in qua apostate, would be identical were she a boy. A seventeen-year-old Muslim *boy* in the USA, who converted to another faith, or who declared himself an atheist, would *also* have had to flee his family, as Rifqa did, to save his life. One of the regulars at Mr Spencer’s blog is ‘Bosch Fawstin’, a former Muslim who did indeed apostasise from Islam as a teenager and consequently had to flee his family, change his name, and live somewhere else, in order to save his life.

Aug 22, 2009 - 2:57 pm 8. ldd:

Glad to hear this new news.
Thank you and everyone else in this Phyillis.

In Canada this summer there has been seven young girls/woman murdered, found drowned – all by their immediate family members, fathers, brothers and a current second wife. All but one were around Rifqa’s age.

Aug 22, 2009 - 3:53 pm 9. Summum Bonum » Blog Archive » The World is Watching the Rifqa Bary Situation:

[...] [...]

Aug 22, 2009 - 5:34 pm 10. gabrielle:

CAIR must be sued for their disgusting calumnies and lies about RIfqa Bary. How loathesome they are, with their smears and their attempts at character assassination. Why does America tolerate such weasels?

Aug 22, 2009 - 10:38 pm 11. I reverted to Islam:

I am somewhat disturbed about this case. In my opinion, everyone is so interested in smashing the muslim religion that they are failing to see reality.
1. The male priest she was living with in Fl.
should have made arrangements with one of
the sisters in the church to take care of
her ?
2. Why were the police the last to know?
3. Was this a story they made up once they got
busted ? She is 17. And it would be very
easy to do. Everyone knows how naive and
gulliable people are when it comes to
the Muslim religion. So anxious to get the
juicy gore they will bypass common sense
to hear it. The priest would be arrested
for rape.
4. Yes, she is afraid of her family now, Im
sure. She lied.
5. Her family should let her go, and legally
do it. It will not be until she suffers and
go through what american little girls, teen
agers, and women go through, that she will
recognize her mistake. Yeah, it is easy to
dog other countries but I grew up her.
I know the truth.

Aug 22, 2009 - 11:30 pm 12. Bwnster713:

Reverted-to go back to a previouse condition,state, or belief.
#11 what were you before you “reverted” to Islam?

Aug 23, 2009 - 1:45 pm 13. Ruvy:

Well done, Dr. Chesler. As we say in in Hebrew, éser!

Now, can you help Israeli girls trapped by Moslems here in imprisoning relationships?

Aug 23, 2009 - 2:14 pm 14. Fern Sidman:

Kudos to Dr. Chesler and the others involved in supporting the constitutional rights of Rifqa Bary. Indeed, Joshua Rhett Miller is FOX on the top of his game when it comes to covering honor murders of Muslim women and other related issues. As to commentator Ruvy who asks Dr. Chesler if she’d be willing to free young Israeli girls from imprisoning relationships with Muslim men; while I would never speak for Dr. Chesler, I would venture a guess that if she could do so, that would be a major priority for her !!

Aug 23, 2009 - 3:28 pm 15. Lynn B:

#11 You sound sad. As if you missed out on something or put yourself in a bad place.
Rifqa was living with the Minister’s wife as well. She now is in the hands of Social Services. Her friends discussed her Facebook page with police and reporters. Her story never changes about the events leading to her leaving. There have been a number of “honor killings” in the US and Canada. It’s good people take notice and respond. I live in Ohio and I know what CAIR does and is capable of. I’m emailing Governor Crist to let him know I support this girl’s emancipation from her parents. I sincerely hope that in spite of what happened to you, you will do the same.

Aug 24, 2009 - 3:09 pm 16. Bob Smith:

Why would anyone “revert” to Islam?

Is it so you can feel comfortable allowing 9 year old girls being forced into sex with 53 year old men?

What is the attraction in making women second class citizens? Why should a woman’s word be worth 1/2 that of a man’s?

Why would God only speak Arabic?

There are fools and there are real fools. Real fools, “freely” join or “revert” to Islam.

Aug 25, 2009 - 7:09 am 17. JIM KENNETT:

its very good that this girl will be safe but it funny how muslims seemingl allways try to claim that converts out of islam are crazy or brainwashed
it like they must try to avoid loosing anyone from the ummaa at all costs and if all else fails kill the apostate its like there afraid that the apostate will speak up and make islam look bad hay is that not the way cults act??

Aug 25, 2009 - 11:35 am 18. ELROY:

If she was running away from a Christain family, to get an abortion, the press, and women’s right groups would converging on Orlando to show their support for the girl.

Aug 26, 2009 - 3:46 am 19. Zahir:

#11 I reverted to Islam: I am so sorry for you. Those of us who have risked censure and punishment for leaving Islam know better than you what it is. Perhaps you live in a western country and have been seduced by the nice words told about its great spirituality. The truth is that something is not what it says it is, but what it produces. I recommend that you go and live in a real Islamic society to find out the truth about what it is. I do not know what pain you have suffered in your own culture, or if you are simply trying to punish your parents for some slight, but you are not in any position to judge Ms. Bary, or attempt to cast aspersions on the character of the minister and his wife. Islam takes in the gullible and needy. It proselytizes in prisons, and seeks out those who feel they do not fit. For the leaders of the Islamic cults you and people like you are what Lenin called “useful idiots”. You pad out the numbers and contribute to the Ummah, and have become a part of a political movement that seeks to displace the democratic values that the west learned by “enlightenment”. You are simply being used, like the communists used the peasants. I know that the average Muslim person seems to be kind and decent, and welcoming now that you are a part of the club, but as a part of the Ummah you time, life and efforts are now a part of the background that supports and nurtures the most frightful superstition and murderous rage. Every single one of you that becomes one of them, gives succor to the 30 percent that would destroy everything that we free thinking and analytical people hold dear. I chose to live my life as anything but a Muslim, and no matter how much I disagree with the philosophy of some of the sects of Christianity, any one of them is a better choice than Islam.

Aug 27, 2009 - 9:00 pm 20. Rifqa Bary Hearing set for Sept. 3 | Apostates United:

[...] From PajamasMedia’s Phyllis Chesler: [...]

Aug 30, 2009 - 11:39 am