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Ohio girl says family wants to kill her for converting to Christianity
An Ohio girl ran away to Orlando because she said her family threatened to kill her for converting to Christianity. Rifqa Bary, 17, said she was threatened by her family because she converted from Islam to Christianity. "What did your father say to you?" WFTV reporter Mary Nguyen asked. "He said he would kill me!" replied Bary.Bary was in Orange County's juvenile justice center because her parents want to regain custody of her. She had been staying with a local Christian pastor's family. Bary said she came to the pastor's home for safety. But now a judge has ruled she will stay in the custody of the Department of Children and Families (DCF). DCF says Bary will stay in foster care until investigators can figure out if her life is in danger. "I don't want to see my father," Bary said. Rifqa Bary pleaded with a DCF case worker to let her stay with Pastor Blake Lorenz from the Global Revolution Church. The 17-year-old girl from Ohio claims her father has threatened to kill her because she has converted to Christianity and rejected her family's Muslim faith. "They have to kill me, because I'm a Christian, it's an honor. If they love me more than God then they have to kill me," she said. Rifqa Bary said she needed to get away from her family. So she hitched-hiked then got on a bus to Orlando. She had befriended the Orlando church on Facebook and ended up at the pastor's home. Lorenz called the state to investigate and a judge ruled Monday that Florida will take emergency jurisdiction until the courts can confirm Ohio will take over the case and investigate it. "There are too many conflicting things that are going on with this child and it needs to be investigated thoroughly. That is our position, the child should be returned to Ohio," said DCf attorney Karelene Cole-Palmer. Mohamed Bary came to Florida to try and bring his daughter back home and denied the allegations. "Did you threaten to kill your daughter because she converted to Christianity?" Nguyen asked. "No, no," responded Mohamed Bary. However, Rifqa Bary insists that's not the case. "This is not just threats this is reality. This is truth," she said. The 17-year-old's family is from Sri Lanka and came to the United States when she was about 8 or 9 years old. A status hearing is set for next Friday. More detail here. Posted by: ryuge 2009-08-11 |
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