Weighing-in on Rifqa: Let the Flames Begin…
ByI’ve resisted weighing-in on the Rifqa Bary issue on Daily Uprising because I believe that the Rifqa case has the potential to divide and create bad blood amongst members of the new conservative and libertarian coalition online.
Nevertheless, with politicians commenting and, now, Time Magazine dedicating substantial copy to the case, I couldn’t resist commenting.
First, however, for those who haven’t been inundated with the Rifqa Bary story already, we’ll provide some background. For the last few weeks, Christian conservatives have been circulating online an emotional interview with Rifqa, a young girl who fled her muslim parents after converting to Christianity:
Rifqa is from Colorado, where some sources say that her parents belong to a more radical islamic community that included, for some time, a prominent intellectual with conspiracy theories about 9/11. She met the Christians she is staying with in Florida via Facebook, ran away from her parents on a bus to Florida, and is quickly becoming a new media sensation. We haven’t seen a lot of proof that Rifqa’s parents intend to murder her or that murdering converts is something that the Islamic community in Colorado tends to do a lot of. Nevertheless, there is reason to be concerned that she won’t receive a joyful homecoming if she is eventually ordered home.
At the outset, I should state that the persecution of Christians abroad is terrible, but the persecution of Christians here at home is unacceptable. Just as I would not have voluntarily agreed to return Elian Gonzales to slavery in Cuba, my conscience would not allow me to return Rifqa to danger after she has told me that a radical Islamic community in Colorado wishes to harm her and more than a few experts concerning that community and faith have told me she has reason to be concerned.
We’d like to think that everyone on the Right would stand with us, but we know that won’t be the case. There is a strong parent’s rights movement on the Right. The movement sided with Communist Fidel Castro after the bearded dictator propped up Elian’s estranged and violent father during the Elian Gonzales dispute. If they could do that, the movement will also probably side against Rifqa in this dispute. We think they’ll see her as a teenage drama queen whose fight with her parents — probably over something like cell phone usage or driving privileges — is causing her to slander her parents as extremists when, in fact, they signed the permission slip to allow her to “shake her booty” as a high school cheerleader in Colorado. While we don’t agree based on the facts we’ve seen and heard, we have to acknowledge that the parent’s rights movement is often and usually correct. And we certainly don’t like the idea of the state seizing children or “protecting them” from parents based merely on the fact that children decide that they don’t subscribe to their parent’s religious or political beliefs. If Rifqa is merely a runaway, she shouldn’t be treated differently from other runaways merely because her parents are devout Muslims.
Still, I just can’t imagine sending her back if she’s testifying that her father may feel obligated to kill her and that he has said as much to her. It may be politically correct to accuse Rifqa of furthering dangerous stereotypes, but we just can’t dismiss the possibility that in this case the stereotype might be true.
At any rate, feel free to flame away in the comments… or to add insight.
