PrintAugust 25, 2009
Media Lies About Rifqa Bary
The court ruling on Friday that allowed Rifqa Bary, the teenager who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled from her Muslim family in fear for her life, to stay in Florida rather than return to her parents, was unexpected. The media shills and Islamic machinery in the U.S. never expected that G-d, Rifqa and the people would prevail upon the powers that be in Florida. So now they are in overdrive.
One egregious example is an almost incomprehensible, misogynist column at the Orlando Sentinel. It is so inaccurate, so misinformed, and so dangerous, that if Rifqa Bary is harmed, "columnist" Mike Thomas could rightly be charged with incitement to violent honor killing. Thomas got nothing right. Not one detail. Further, at no point did he consider Rifqa's testimony. At no point did he consider the consequences of Rifqa's testimony. At no point did he consider the risk to Rifqa's life.
Thomas says, "Left unanswered is what business Florida has involving itself in this matter. The people best suited to determine the threat level to Rifqa are the cops and social workers in Ohio familiar with the Bary family and the Muslim community."
Why does Florida need to be involved? The Sentinel reported Friday: "There is no evidence, according to Columbus-area authorities that her father poses any threat." But a police officer from Columbus who involved in Rifqa's case told a source close to the case that he had talked to 20 people who knew Rifqa, and almost all 20 said she was in fear for her life. And one of Rifqa's teachers said she knew Rifqa's life was in danger, but became very frightened when told by the school to "stay out of this."
Thomas observes that Rifqa was a cheerleader and says: "Somehow I can't imagine a Muslim extremist allowing his daughter to wear short skirts and shake pompoms in front of a crowd of infidels."
Thomas knows nothing of honor killings in the West. Victims are generally beautiful, Westernized, and dressed in a manner that perhaps Thomas would term "provocative." Muslim girls who live in the West lead two lives. Amina and Sarah Said, murdered by their father in Texas on New Year's Day 2008 for having non-Muslim boyfriends, were honor students, star athletes, soccer players, tennis players, etc. Rifqa was the same way in Ohio before she fled. These girls led double lives.
The murder always happens when the family sees they have lost control of the child. In the case of Amina and Sarah, the girls ran away. The mother lured them back, and they were both dead less than 24 hours later. Canadian honor killing victim Aqsa Parvez also left her home and was staying with friends when she too was lured back, only to be murdered by her father for refusing to wear the Islamic headscarf.
The fathers cleanse the family of the dishonor of their daughter's un-Islamic behavior. But Thomas also adds: "I could go through the Old Testament and cherry-pick any number of quotes demanding death for nonbelievers, nonvirgin brides and blasphemers. No Christian I know endorses that, yet it seems every Muslim abides by the darker writings in the faith." But what difference does that make? Christian and Jews are not killing their daughters and wives to restore their honor these days. Muslims are.
Most outrageously of all, Thomas decries an "anti-Muslim" bias in the media coverage of Rifqa's case. In fact, there was an anti-Christian bias. The mainstream media vilified the good Christians who provided sanctuary to Rifqa, who sought only to escape her father's threat to kill her. The media reported only the parents' Islamist narrative -- giving Rifqa's story no air time or ink. They repeated the lies over and over again. Folks had to go to YouTube to hear Rifqa in her own words.
Why didn't one media outlet have on an expert or scholar on apostasy in Islam? Why wasn't Ibn Warraq or Wafa Sultan called? Robert Spencer was nowhere to be seen. Fox called on political pundits and others to explain Rifqa's case, and they got it wrong. The only responsible expert who weighed in was Frank Gaffney here.
Anti-Muslim bias? Officials of the un-indicted co-conspirator and terror-linked group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) handed out copies of another anti-Rifqa Orlando Sentinel article and want supporters to push the meme that Christians have brainwashed and abducted this gullible teenage girl.
Rifqa Bary is the cross to CAIR's Dracula -- I expect they'll create a huge negative campaign to destroy this child. For Rifqa's testimony validates what so-called "Islamophobes" and "anti-Muslim bigots" who write of the violent ideology have been aying. CAIR must destroy this young girl, as she has destroyed them with her words of truth and of... Christ.
Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Wafa Sultan, Geert Wilders: these truth tellers live under 24-hour guard because of Islamic death threats against them, which they received because they spoke the truth about Islam. Rifqa Bary has committed a far worse crime from the Islamic perspective: the crime of apostasy. Her testimony is far more dangerous to the stealth jihadists in America.
Rifqa Bary is the highest value target in America. She should be under 24-hour guard. And she should be given a fair shake in the media.
Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs Web site and former associate publisher of the New York Observer.
