August 31, 2009

Bombshell documents filed in Rifqa Bary case***Updated with Gov. Crist contact info***UPDATE2 Fox News report***

***UPDATE 2*** Fox News has been headlining their programming this evening with this story. Their online article is here. Contact Gov. Crist and FL DCF at the contact info below the fold and ask them to recommend to the court not sending Rifqa back to Ohio to this extremist mosque!

Original post: Two bombshell documents were filed with the court today by Rifqa Bary's Orlando attorney John Stemberger. The first is a 35 page memo outlining the extremism of the Ohio mosque attended by the Bary family, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center. The first three pages are an executive summary, which cover the four issues raised in Stemberger's brief:

1) The founder and CEO of the mosque was identified in government exhibits in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism finance trial as one of the top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in North America. The Muslim Brotherhood is the leading purveyor of extremist Islamic ideology in the world. (as Cruz notes in the comments, Bob Baer has said in his book, See No Evil, "The Muslim Brotherhood is the Granddaddy of all terrorist organizations.")

2) The mosque's former resident scholar, Salah Sultan, has been videotaped and photographer with designated terrorists, in addition to appearances he's made on Middle East TV networks inciting violence and calling for the destruction of the US (something we noted here at Jawa two weeks ago). Sultan is a protege of Hamas spiritual leader Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, who has issued fatwas endorsing the execution of apostates from Islam.

3) The center has recently hosted a laundry list of the top Islamic extremist speakers in the US, including Siraj Wahhaj, an unindicted coconspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial.

4) The mosque and one of its youth workers is tied to the ongoing nationwide investigation into Al-Shabaab recruiting in the US Somali community.

The other document is a two page affidavit signed by Rifqa Bary that undercuts the establishment media's current narrative that runs something like this: "The Bary family can't be that extreme since they allowed her to be a cheerleader."

As the affidavit shows, it was precisely her Westernized behavior that prompted the Noor Center leadership and others from the mosque to direct Rifqa's father to get her under control - direction he acted upon. Her testimony details the progression of the problem:

15. I became a Christian on Friday, November 18, 2005 at the Korean United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio;

16. I hid my Christian faith from my parents as best as I could and had to sneak around to attend Christian campus meetings, I also hid my Bible at home in various locations;

17. In about 2007 my father discovered a copy of a book entitled the "Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren that I hid in my bedroom. My father had a serious talk with me about the importance of retaining the Islamic blood line in my family but I did not tell him about my conversion;

18. In June of 2009 my father confronted me with several questions about whether I had become a Christian, whether I was baptized, if I was going to church. Out of fear I remained silent;

19. Then my father told me that he received numerous emails and phone calls from the leaders of the Noor Center community who informed him that he needed to deal with this matter immediately;

20. 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." I continued to remain silent and then he said to me even more angry then before, I Iwill kill you! Tell me the truth!"

21. On July 17, 2009, my mother confronted me about another Christian book she discovered that I hid in my bedroom. She had just spoken with my father was on the phone who was out of town. She was very upset, in tears, and almost grieving and told me I was going to have to be sent back to Sri Lanka to be dealt with.

Considering the family's close association with the mosque (mosque events were held in their home), and the mosque's extensively documented extremist ideology and terrorist connections, placing Rifqa anywhere close to this community would represent a grave threat to her safety. How could any judge in his right mind send her back in light of this information? We'll find out on Thursday.

***Update***
Rifqa's attorney has asked supporters to contact Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the head of the FL Dept. of Children and Family to have them ask the court to keep her in Florida state custody and not return the child to Ohio authorities, who have already said they intend to send her back to her family. Here's the contact info:

Governor Charlie Crist's office:
Phone: (850) 488-4441, (850) 488-7146
Fax: (850) 487-0801
Email: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com

Florida Department of Children and Family:
George H. Sheldon, Secretary
1317 Winewood Blvd.
Building 1, Room 202
Tallahassee, Florida
Phone: (850) 487-1111
Fax: (850) 922-2993