'Apostate' girl's father

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By Pamela Geller

Rifqa Bary, the Ohio girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled from her family in fear for her life, prevailed.

She will not be sent back to her father who threatened her life. But she got no help from the mainstream media. Either they didn't report her story or printed half-truths and deceptions to whitewash Islam.

The media demonized Christianity ("brainwashed by a cult") while inaccurately reporting the facts to avoid reporting about the violent ideology of Islam. They have become as depraved as the murderers for whom they cover. In doing so, the mainstream media have missed a lot that is crucial to Rifqa's story.

Rifqa's parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary, signed affidavits declaring themselves indigent. That's why the Florida court appointed a lawyer for the father and a lawyer for the mother. Both their lawyers are being paid by the taxpayers of Florida. Worse still, Aysha and Mohamed Bary's lawyer asked the court for more money at Rifqa's custody hearing last Friday, so that they could wage a campaign to get Rifqa back home -- a campaign involving depositions, legal documents, filings, etc.

Yet in a Dun and Bradstreet report filed by Mr. Bary himself for his business, Bary Gems, he states his business does $237,561 yearly. Mrs. Bary makes high-end bridal gowns (that income may be off the books, but she works every day). It would appear she works 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.

Bary Gems offers some high-ticket items. You can get a genuine blue sapphire for a mere $2,900. And if Mr. Bary dissolved the business in early July, where are the proceeds? Where is the inventory? The Barys owned a gem import business. If they liquidated, they must have had some inventory or orders or cash on hand.

The Barys live in a very affluent neighborhood in Westerville, Ohio, in a house they rent. They're not buying because pious Muslims aren't supposed to take on mortgages -- that would involve usury, and is forbidden in the Koran.

Things began to disintegrate at home fairly rapidly once the parents were aware that Rifqa had converted to Christianity. Her parents threatened her, but she never left Christianity.

In mid-July her mother went through Rifqa's private things and found her journal. It was then revealed to her mother that Rifqa was a practicing Christian. Mrs. Bary called her husband and alerted him that Rifqa was still practicing Christianity in secret.

Mr. Bary cut his business trip short to return home immediately while Mrs. Bary packed the family's bags to go 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.

It was very clear that Rifqa's father planned to flee the country with his threatened daughter. According to very recent documentation, Mr. Bary dissolved his business on July 29 -- after Rifqa ran for her life (fearing an honor killing for her apostasy) and was discovered in Florida.

This was not an insignificant business, with annual sales of $237,561. That's a lot to give up. So why did Mr. Bary dissolve his business so suddenly? He obviously did not expect Rifqa to prevail in Florida court. Like all the pundits, he expected Rifqa would have to go back to Ohio.

Mr. and Mrs. Bary signed papers in Ohio with Franklin County Children Services, saying they would be happy if she were brought back to the state and placed in a foster home for at least 30 days. They just wanted to get her back in Ohio and out of Florida and Floridian interference.

Thirty days in foster care in Ohio (and what good does that do?) and then they wing her to Sri Lanka. Rifka said it herself: "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."

Mr. Bary began the process of dissolving his business in early July when it became increasingly clear that Rifqa was a true convert to Christianity. At that time, he waved her laptop at her and said, "You are dead to me. You are not my daughter." He told her: "I will kill you."

His sudden dissolving of his business indicates he was deadly serious. But you won't learn them from the mainstream media. For them, and for the almost-as-clueless courts, he is "indigent."

Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs Web site and former associate publisher of the New York Observer.