By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
Distrubing details have emerged about the parenets of Rifqa Bary, the Ohio girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled in fear of being murdered in an “honor killing.”
In an op-ed appearing in the Washington Times, Pamela Geller, former associate publisher of the New York Observer says the media deliberately misreported facts in order to demonize Christianity and avoid reporting about the violent ideology of Islam.
“They have become as depraved as the murderers for whom they cover,” Geller writes. “In doing so, the mainstream media have missed a lot that is crucial to Rifqa’s story.”
Apparently, Rifqa’s parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, signed affidavits declaring themselves indigent, and were assigned tax-payer funded legal counsel from the state of Florida.
However, a Dun and Bradstreet report filed by Mr. Bary for his business, Bary Gems, claims his business is does $237,561 annually. Mrs. Bary makes high-end bridal gowns for Custom Bridal Veil, a company owned by a Risana Bary, who works with Mr. Bary at Bary Gems. Risana is apparently Mohamed’s wife but why is she listed under different names in different places?
“The questions regarding their honesty are inevitable,” Geller writes.
Geller also points out that the Barys live in a very affluent neighborhood in Westerville, Ohio. They rent the house only because pious Muslims are not permitted to take on mortgages, which involves usury, something that is forbidden in the Koran.
After her conversion, Rifqa was threatened by her parents, but secretly continued to practice Christianity. In mid-July, her mother found her private journal, which revealed that she was still practicing Christianity. Mrs. Bary called her husband, who was on a business trip, to tell him what she had discovered.
Mr. Bary came home immediately and ordered Mrs. Bary to pack the family’s belongings because they were going to back to Sri Lanka.
“ Whether Rifqa would have been honor murdered before or after they returned to Sri Lanka is known only to the Barys,” Geller writes, but says it was very clear that “Rifqa’s father planned to flee the country with his threatened daughter.”
Recent documentation reveals that Mr. Bary dissolved his business on July 29, after Rifqa had run away to Florida. It was shortly before this, when he first began the process of dissolving his business, that he waved Rifqa’s laptop at her and said, “You are dead to me. You are not my daughter.” He told her: “I will kill you.”
Geller believes Mr. Bary dissolved the business and planned to return to Sri Lanka because they never expected Rifqa to prevail in Florida. “Like all the pundits, he expected Rifqa would have to go back to Ohio,” Geller writes.
That Rifqa’s life is in danger is a very real possibility, Geller says, in spite of what the media is reporting.
As Rifqa herself said, “In 150 generations of my family, no one has known Jesus. I am the first one. 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. … They have to do this. They just have to. Either they do that or they send me back to Sri Lanka. There’s an asylum there where they put people like me, like, think I’m crazy.”
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