A Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation has found no “credible” evidence that Christian convert Rifqa Bary is endangered by her Muslim parents she fled in July in fear of her life.
Supporters of the Ohio teen, however, called the FDLE report a “travesty of justice,” and one Islam expert criticized the report as “political correctness” that will endanger the girl’s life.
The FDLE report, which was unsealed Sept. 14 by Judge Daniel Dawson of Orange County’s Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, summarizes the department’s investigation of Rifqa Bary’s claims that her father, Mohamed Bary, threatened her life in June after learning of her conversion to Christianity.
Dawson ruled Sept. 3 that Rifqa would remain in emergency protective custody of the Department of Children and Families (DCF), setting the next hearing on the matter for Sept. 29. Dawson has also put a “gag order” in effect, forbidding attorneys from speaking to the media about their clients.
In her Aug. 30 sworn affidavit, the 17-year-old said in June her father was pressured by leaders of the family mosque, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Columbus, to deal with reports they had received concerning Rifqa’s Christian conversion.
“In a fit of anger that I had never seen before in my life, he picked up my lap top, waived it over my head as if to strike me with it and said, ‘If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me! You are no longer my daughter,’” Rifqa said in the affidavit.
“I continued to remain silent and then he said to me even more angry than before, ‘I will kill you! Tell me the truth!’”
According to the FDLE report, on Aug. 24 Rifqa told FDLE investigators that she was fearful for her life because of the Islamic teaching she understood to require death for Muslims who convert to Christianity.
FDLE investigators interviewed Rifqa’s parents at their Westerville, Ohio, home on Aug. 27. Her father denied ever striking and threatening Rifqa, although he admitted during his confrontation with his daughter about her conversion that he grabbed the lap top computer and intended to throw it, but decided against doing so because of its expense.
Brian Williams, a 21-year-old friend of Rifqa, contacted FDLE on Aug. 28, noting that he filed a report with the Columbus Police Department that she had told him about her father’s threat and her mother finding Christian materials in July. Williams also told FDLE he baptized Rifqa in June. He also said he drove Rifqa from a friend’s house to the bus station when she decided to flee.
Concerning “honor killings” for apostasy from Islam, Mohamed Bary emphatically rejected the reality of the concept, by answering “absolutely not,” adding “there is no such thing as honor killing.”
The FDLE report noted during the Aug. 27 interview with the Bary family, two officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) were present, including CAIR attorney Romin Iqbal who characterized honor killings as “cultural and tribal, not related directly to the Islamic religious practice.”
Mohamed Bary said he does intend to raise his minor daughter as a Muslim, but she would be permitted to “study Christianity,” and as an adult “she would be free to worship as she pleased,” according to the FDLE report.
The FDLE reported, “The Islamic community was not investigated. And investigation into any person, religious or social organization without a specific identifiable criminal predicate is inappropriate.”
The report further asserted, “Ms. Bary’s concern that she may be killed because of her conversion from Islam to Christianity remains a subjective and speculative concern in that FDLE’s inquiry to date has failed to reveal any evidence of a conspiracy to commit, solicitation to commit, attempt or other efforts to commit any such action or other violence against her.”
According to Ergun Mehmet Caner, the FDLE report is an example of “political correctness” that may endanger Rifqa’s life.
“Her blood, which is almost certain to be shed if returned, is on their hands. The police and judicial branch in Florida were her last hope,” Caner said in a Sept. 15 interview with Florida Baptist Witness.
Caner, who converted to Christianity as a 16-year-old in Columbus, Ohio, grew-up in the mosque, the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio, out of which the Bary family mosque was started and remains connected. Caner’s father, the family mosque’s architect, disowned his son – and two others – for converting to Christianity.
Now a Baptist minister and president of Liberty Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Va., Caner is a well-known apologist for the Christian faith – activity for which a fatwa, an Islamic religious ruling calling for his death, was issued last year.
Because of his outspoken repudiation of Islam and defense of Christianity, Caner said he has to take special security precautions.
Caner told the Witness, “Death for apostasy from Islam is firmly rooted in the most sacred Muslim texts,” citing the Qur’an and the Hadith, collections about Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.
“There is also a consensus by all four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, as well as Shi’ite jurists, that apostates from Islam must be put to death,” he said.
Caner emphatically rejected Mohamed Bary’s claim that Rifqa would be permitted to study Christianity as a minor and worship as a Christian when she becomes an adult.
“Islam does not allow this. She brings dishonor to her family by her Christian faith,” he said.
Caner criticized the FDLE for permitting CAIR representatives to be present during the Aug. 27 interview of the Bary family, calling it “a form of intimidation. Was [Rifqa’s] Christian friend allowed in as well? Of course not.”
CAIR, a Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, is credible only to other Muslims, according to Caner.
Tom Trento, director of Florida Security Council, an international terrorism organization based in Lake Worth that has tried to rally public support for Rifqa Bary, issued a news release calling the FDLE report and investigation “an amateurish farce or politically motivated.”
He said the FDLE failed to “adequately explore and address the history of abuse outlined in the affidavit and the threats to Rifqa’s life as demonstrated by the affidavit and additional reports submitted to the court.”
The report is a “travesty of justice for Rifqa Bary,” Trento said.
Trenton criticized the report for failing to ask Rifqa’s parents about alleged sexual abuse of her by her uncle; failing to inquire about Rifqa’s claim her parents will send her back to Sri Lanka; failing to interview “an extensive list of witnesses” concerning Rifqa’s fear of death; the reliance on the testimony of Mohamed Rifqa and CAIR about “honor killings;" and failing to investigate the terrorist ties of the family mosque.
“The FSC believes Gov. Charlie Crist and DCF Secretary George Sheldon have an obligation to direct the agencies under their authorities to fully re-examine their investigations and reporting in the case of Rifqa Bary in light of the inadequacies of this effort thus far,” Trenton asserted.