Friday, September 18, 2009

Stop The ACLU Thinks There Is Somthing "Off" About The Rifqa Bary Case - And, He Has Been Personally Involved With It

From Stop the ACLU:

The objective facts of the Rifqa Bary case, viewed with a minimum of passion and maximum wisdom and discernment, certainly should matter, to Christians in particular. I write this post because today a report by the FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) addressing the claims of Rifqa Bary that her parents would allegedly kill her because she has converted from Islam to Christianity has been released, providing additional documentationof things I have known for some weeks now, but have not until now been at liberty to say.
Rifqa in happier times

It will astonish many conservatives, no doubt, to learn that a co-blogger atSTACLU has vigorously defended in court one of the parents of Rifqa Bary and believes his former client’s cause is just. And there is little doubt that many on the left will be astonished to learn that a former attorney for one of Rifqa Bary’s parents blogs at STACLU. Yes, I was Aysha Risana Bary’s (Rifqa’s mother) attorney from August 10, 2009 until September 3, 2009. I hope it doesn’t come across as anything but a simple fact when I say to you, STACLU reader, that I know more about what is really going on in this case than you do — and we as Christians and conservatives ought to be interested in knowing what is really going on about controversial stories.

Let me give you a quick tour of my Christian, non-muslim-apologist bona fides before I continue. I found the Lord and became born again at the age of five and was raised in an evangelical tradition and environment. In other than my live appearance on FNC’s Fox and Friends August 27th, I have made my faith as a Christian clear to every journalist who has interviewed me about this case. I have served in uniform as an Army Reservist post-9/11. I am in civilian life an attorney who has been involved with probably close to a thousand cases involving child abuse and neglect, both on the side of the State, (a little aside: I almost lost my job way back for trying to save Terri Schiavo while I was a Florida DCF attorney — I was critical of Attorney General Charlie Crist in that case then and am critical of Governor Charlie Crist in this case now) and on the side of parents who have had the State dismantle their families. I have used this very blog to do what I can to encourage and defend Christian expression in our culture. I could go on, but hope I don’t have to. Bottom line, believe me or not, I am a Christian attorney who believes in working to advance the cause of Christ while I’m here in this fallen world.

And I also believe that many Christian conservatives have allowed themselves to adopt a narrative and thus reach conclusions about the Rifqa Bary case prematurely just as we rightly accuse the left-leaning MSM/drive-by/state-run media of sticking to their preferred narratives instead of squaring their passions with reality. Early on I all but plead with Christians to hit the pause button and wait for more investigation and facts. The implications of getting this wrong has pained me greatly.

Now to the facts. On the morning of August 10th, I was at the juvenile courthouse in Orange County, Florida, working, and observing people loudly making threats to bring in the media and the governor about some matter to be heard that day. Something seemed “off” about some of the personalities in this case immediately (and by that I do not mean the child herself). I was appointed to the case to defend Rifqa’s mom later that day. This did not happen purely by chance. As the person in my county who is routinely appointed to serve as an attorney ad litem to speak for children in foster care, I was asked to stick around because it was expected that I might very well become Rifqa’s attorney. When the attorney who had at first entered an appearance on behalf of Pastor Blake Lorenz later changed her position and declared that she in fact represented the child Rifqa, however, I was given the task of representing one of the parents in the case. It’s kind of inside baseball for most readers, but I was immediately struck by the strangeness of the Lorenz’ attorney spontaneously declaring an attorney-client relationship with the child in open court that hadn’t existed the moment before. That sense of strangeness remains relevant given a recent motion to clarify the roles of Rifaq’s four attorneys filed by DCF. In any event, I took the case on behalf of Rifqa’s mom and started digging, knowing from the beginning that the case had implications for people of my Christian faith and being determined to get it right.

By August 12th, I already had solid documentation that at least one thing circulating in the media and on blogs was flat wrong: that the parents had not reported the child missing for ten days. Not long after, I was able to nail down another misreported “fact”, that the child’s note left to her parents had not been given to police. Neither of those things are true. Why are those relatively mundane facts important? They are important because the person reporting them couldn’t possibly know those things, yet so-called adults surrounding Rifqa eagerly passed those things on to media without analysis, one imagines, because they served to paint the child’s parents in a bad light. Knowing that the key facts first presented here in Orlando were just plain wrong, and almost inexplicably wrong given that neither claim could possibly be known to anyone in Florida, I continued with my sense that something was “off” here, and kept digging.

I was annoyed as a Christian, as an officer of the court, and as a litigator, (in that order) that many with whom I agree on many issues were so willing to disregard the notion that a parent has the right in this country to raise and influence a child without governmental interference, unless there is evidence of abuse or neglect that is credible and not based on stereotypes or based on the beliefs or actions of what people who are not the parents might think, feel, or do. Consider this: a minor goes missing; an Amber Alert is issued; law enforcement officials develop information; that information leads police to a lead; that lead actually has knowledge of where the child is; despite the fact that the lead initially denies his knowledge of where the child is, police are able to put that together with a call to the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children, and then they find the missing child….. Yet the response of certain people involved with this case is to be outraged that the police did their jobs. Something is “off”.

Then came the FDLE report executive summary. It’s out there now. It confirms things I already knew. When Mohamed Bary personally showed me photographs of his daughter in a cheerleader outfit when we met for the second time on August 21st (he had driven from Ohio to Florida twice now to attend court hearings) I knew that claims that he had no idea that his child was a westernized and normal high school student were nonsense. Reading the FDLE report, I now have confirmation of several things I’d developedinformation about. I am no longer involved with this case as an attorney. It would be improper by this blog post to interfere with the Barys’ new attorneys and how they want to proceed. Let me just say this: if you can find a copy of the FDLE report on the web (the one distributed to the media has been redacted to remove names), you will know that every claim in this case so far that can be objectively and independently looked into, that isn’t a he-said, she-said about a conversation that you and I were not part of, is embellished or false. I don’t intend to litigate on a blog or go point-by-point about the FDLE report. I could, but I won’t. Suffice it to say that a growing list of otherwise uninterested people would have to be lying in order for what you think is true about this case to be true.

To my Christian readers I say that most of you likely had a heartfelt desire to protect a new convert to our faith. I can’t fault you there. Quite frankly I am happy that the child knows Jesus, but that is a personal feeling and not relevant to my previous job of defending these parents from the power of the State to take their family apart. Please recognize that the Lord is not so powerless as to need pastors and others to hide information, to embellishfacts, or to give false witness in order to advance Christ’s Kingdom. You homeschoolers in particular ought to pause and weigh the power of the State to take your child into foster care against your feelings on this case and whether or not you would wish to be afforded a competent defense should religious biases be used against you some day.

To any readers who may be of the People for the American Way variety who blog about the hypocrisy of Christians, I simply present myself, an Evangelical Christian who believes in facts and law and has extended himself far out on a limb before his peers on behalf of Rifqa’s mother.

To any readers who may be Muslim, I invite you to explore the New Testament and I pray that you find the Way, the Truth, and the Life. See the paragraph above. Do not allow your reading of certain blogs to taint your feelings toward your Christian neighbors.

And to Rifqa, one year younger than my older child, I say that as a father and as a Christian, and as your mother’s former attorney, I care about you and have since August 10th. God bless you, and I believe that all things will work together for good.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

feh, so what, he's a christian.

BabbaZee said...

The Effin'P has never lied to me. Not once.

If it lies, it ain't the Effin'P.

revereridesagain said...

And the parents' participation in the Noor Mosque? Or is he just taking the word of the nice people he has met there that Rifqa is in no danger?

I'm not interested in when this gentleman Found the Lord, and given his incessant yammering about how he inserts his personal religious views into his legal career he's about the last lawyer I would trust to represent me. Especially after that crack about his Muslim friends not allowing "your reading of certain blogs to taint your feelings towards your Christian neighbors". This self-congratulatory jerk is taqiyya bait if he finds no reason to pay attention to the information provided in "certain blogs".

Twenty years of hearing from fools that there was no problem with the Moonies, the Scientologists, the Alamo Foundation (Tony, finally in the slammer for child sex abuse), the Garbage Eaters, the Rajneeshes, the Children of God, and all the rest of those culties who "just happen to be different" and I'm supposed to take this guy's word because Barymom sniffed into her hanky and swore she'd never hurt her little girl?

Sorry, not buying. I want a signed under penalty of perjury statement from the parents AND the Noor Mosque leaders specifically and unequivocably renouncing any provisions under Sharia or other Muslim legal tenets advocating the murder of public apostates.

Don't hold your breath.

Anonymous said...

She is 10 or 11 months away from being an adult under the law. She has personally requested the protection of the state against what she believes is a mortal threat.

HOW THE HELL IS THAT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM THE "TAKING OF A CHILD INTO FOSTER CARE AGAINST A PARENT'S WISHES"???

Sorry, I will stop screaming now.

This is not the state deciding, based on anecdotal or other arbitrary "evidence" that a small child whose testimony cannot be relied upon should be removed from its home in violation of parental rights.

This person is either very deceived or is a liar.

nunya said...

I could not be less convinced.

"I was annoyed as a Christian, as an officer of the court, and as a litigator, (in that order) that many with whom I agree on many issues were so willing to disregard the notion that a parent has the right in this country to raise and influence a child without governmental interference, unless there is evidence of abuse or neglect that is credible and not based on stereotypes or based on the beliefs or actions of what people who are not the parents might think, feel, or do."

If raising your child in a radical death-cult, under threat of death, and surrounding that kid with terrorists who ensure that her murder be carried out should she step out of line doesn't constitute child abuse (not to mention coercion and intimdation,and threatening) I don't know what does. Sharia is not a "stereotype." It is a hard-and-fast set of rules and obligations to be carried out under threat of death. What is unreasonable is assuming that any Mohammedan does not adhere to every single aspect of Sharia under all circumstances, since that's what they do by definition. They are Mohammedans, therefore they will kill her. To even consider otherwise is literally insane.

Anonymous said...

That writer seems completely ignorant regarding Islamic law, apostasy, and honor killings in Islam in general.

Rifqa says she's in danger. If she hasn't reached a sufficient age of maturity at age 17 to determine such things for herself, then consider this:

The prophet of Islam (who Rifqa's own father is named after) married a little girl playing with dolls, Aisha (who Rifqa's own mother was named after) when she was SIX YEARS OLD. SIX years old!

In ten months Rifqa will be exactly THREE TIMES as old (hence three times as mature) as Aisha was when she married the so-called "world's most perfect man"

What kind of utter retard would fail to see the astounding hypocrisy going on here.

Anonymous said...

There are a number of things that are disturbing here in what this guy says.

"When Mohamed Bary personally showed me photographs of his daughter in a cheerleader outfit when we met for the second time on August 21st (he had driven from Ohio to Florida twice now to attend court hearings) I knew that claims that he had no idea that his child was a westernized and normal high school student were nonsense."

First off, anyone who thinks Rifqa being a cheerleader says anything about the family being radical or non radical Muslims is a moron who for the first time in their lives took their head out of the sand! Radical Islam does not mean every woman is going to be in a hijab and an abaya and if you see some skin, WOAH A NEW AND A MODERATE MUSLIM APPEARS! Get out there, I say to this lawyer, and maybe do some research. Anybody here and elsewhere ever think that according to Islam if its okay to rape Muslim women or not? Of course its not okay according to Islam but Palestinian MUSLIMS do that all the time just to shame those women into becoming suicide bombers. And that is all acceptable in Islam for a bigger cause.

Now I am not trying to say that the parents had a devious plan and that's why they let her be a cheerleader. What I am saying is that you can't judge a Muslim by his/her colors! I am sure these same parents loved Rifqa but once she crossed this line THAT SHOULD NEVER BE CROSSED WILLINGLY, she became an enemy of Islam. Not only did she denounce Islam in her heart but denounced it publicly! Is that something small? No of course not and do I think that that might have changed the degree of love parents had toward Rifqa. OF COURSE! Islam comes first, whether you are moderate, fundamentalist, by-name or any other brand of Muslim, you are Muslim first and then anything else! You are Muslim first and then a father or a mother.

People need to step outside of their western mindset and try to think of these things in their context. How this guy melted when he looked at Rifqa's picture in the cheerleading uniform and after talking to her mother and at the same time he claims he knows a lot more than "certain blogs" is beyong me. Just because he compared this case to ANY OTHER case in the US that involves parents and children tells me he knows next to nothing about Islam.

Continued...

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

"you will know that every claim in this case so far that can be objectively and independently looked into, that isn’t a he-said, she-said about a conversation that you and I were not part of, is embellished or false."

I just want to ask how the report concluded there was no evidence that the parents were a threat to the girl. This might be a lost cause here, Rifqa might be sent back and there may not be a thing we can do about it but I am sick of people picking on what she wears and how she talks as evidence against what she says about her parents. If she is so young now that her testimony bears no weight than how and why are things going to be different 11 months later?

That the parents are no threat was concluded based on pure word of mouth. You ask the father, "are you going to kill your daughter?" or something to that effect and the father goes, "yeah, absolutely!" I'd brand that father stupid and someone who should belong in a mental institution. Yes, when he says, "I never threatened my daughter" in either case, it makes sense whether he is telling the truth or not. So there is nothing you or I could ascertain from that. I would still go with the girl's testimony.

The CAIR people and mullahs were asked, "does islam institute death for apostates", they came back with things like, "there's no such thing as honor killing in Islam" and "islam doesn't allow you to kill while you're angry...". I will say this right now. The phrase, "honor killing" does not appear in the Quran either in Arabic or English or any other language. However, in her first tv interview that appeared, Rifqa did not describe her parents' motive to kill her as "honor killing" but she said that to kill her would be "an honor" which is an accurate description. Later she refers to other cases that are popularly known as "honor killings". The media has twisted her words and maybe even people on her side have used these phrases that can be played around in the media and to which Muslims can respond, "there is no such thing as honor killing in Islam".

If there is something that's off in this case, then its the brains of the people that are involved in this.

Continued...

Anonymous said...

"To my Christian readers I say that most of you likely had a heartfelt desire to protect a new convert to our faith. I can’t fault you there."

I am a Christian and I can say here that I would have supported this girl even if she converted to the church of Satan. Yes, there are similarities between her story and mine and yes its great that she is a Christian. But right now, that doesn't really matter. As I have said before, this isn't about the girl's freedom or whether the parents should get the girl or not, its about her life--and since she's gotten so much publicity--even more so.

I will comment more if I find something else that's wrong in what this guy's saying. If LGF can change, so can Stop ACLU! However, this guy might just be a little misguided and moved with emotion, after all, he is a parent himself. What he isn't though is a Muslim!

revereridesagain said...

Also, if Mohammad Bary showed his wife's attorney a picture of Rifqa in her cheerleader outfit, this had to be after she turned up in Florida and the Noor Mosque Damage Control Taqiyya Committee was on the case. The mother had already found Rifqa's diary and after she left they must have found all the rest of her stuff. Is the father going to show that cheerleader photo to the mother's lawyer and rail about Western living ruining his daughter's Islamic purity so she must die? Or is it going to be the same hey, whatever she wants is OK line he's been playing since the story broke?

That Rifqa is as normal as she is, is remarkable, as was the case with the Said sisters and other girls raised in these circumstances. I don't see anything "off" about her. She appears to be a normal teen and quite intelligent if a bit giddy. (Hyper is not always bad. Jaycee Dugard was described as a "mellow" kid and wound up spending 18 years in captivity.) She sounds like she's had a normal conversion experience and has friends to share that with, and it allows her to feel she is cared about and protected.

AA is right -- to understand you have to learn something about Islamic dogma, imagine yourself a devout Muslim, then ask yourself how you would react. The refusal of so many people to look at a perverse belief system and refuse to believe that it is dangerous just because it has the label "major religion" slapped on it is mental laziness combined with moral cowardice.