Muslim 'apostates' in U.S. ask for protection

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By Julia Duin

Five ex-Muslims who founded a group called Former Muslims United put out a public appeal Thursday to the U.S. government for protection, saying the lives of thousands of "apostates from Islam" are in peril.

Speaking at a Capitol Hill press conference, the Granada Hills, Calif., group cited the case of Fathima Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old from Ohio who converted to Christianity four years ago. She fled to Florida this past summer in fears that her parents would murder her for "honor" reasons. Her father, the girl said in a court filing, had already threatened to kill her.

Fathima first stayed with a pastor and his wife, then ended up in protective custody with Florida's Department of Children and Families. Currently, she is living with a foster family. Investigators in Florida and Ohio, where her parents live, have said they can't find evidence to support her allegations. The girl's fate will be determined at a court hearing in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 27.

Former Muslims United cited no U.S. deaths and could not come up with exact numbers of how many former Muslims reside in the United States or how many have been threatened.

Syrian-born Wafa Sultan, one of the five founders of the group, has received death threats, the group said, going on to predict that cases will increase and worsen as a generation of U.S.-native Muslims, born mostly to immigrant parents, reach adulthood.

"We are going to have a lot more Rifqa Barys in America because the kids are rebelling," said Nonie Darwish, the Egyptian-born director of the group. "I know families in Los Angeles whose kids are not attending mosque and their parents are threatening them.

"How could no one believe this girl? The parents are under a lot of pressure from the Muslim community to do something about this kid," she said, adding that "the tyranny of political correctness" is making Western nations "too appeasing toward the people who want to kill us."

Islamic law mandates death for adult male apostates. Female apostates are imprisoned for life or sometimes killed. If one member of a married couple leaves Islam, the marriage is declared void and the apostate loses custody of any children.

There have been some well-known cases of threats to overseas apostates, specifically that of Abdul Rahman, 41, an Afghan convert to Christianity who was imprisoned on apostasy charges in 2006 and was to be put to death. After an international outcry, he was allowed to leave Afghanistan and was granted asylum by the Italian government.

Other founders of the group spoke Thursday of the skepticism they have encountered.