Month: August 2009

Florida: Human Rights Group Urges You to Contact Florida Governor, Florida Dept of Children and Family on Rifqa Bary Case

International Christian Concern (ICC) urges you to contact Florida Governor Crist and the Florida Department of Children and Family on the Rifqa Bary case:

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

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To: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com

Subject: Florida Governor Crist: Act to Protect Rifqa Bary

Florida Governor Crist,

I am writing this email to ensure that Rifqa Bary, a convert from Islam to Christianity, remains in Florida, where she is safe from reported threats by her parents to take violent action against because of her religious beliefs. Rifqa Bary and other women in the United States and around the world face the threat of religious extremist “honor killings” and violence due to those who would deny religious freedom in their families, as has been reported in this case. The international human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC), has stated that Rifqa Bary is at risk of violence based on their investigation and interviews with people linked to this case. ICC believes that Rifqa Bary is at risk of violence should she be transported to Ohio, where her parents live. Please ensure that no such eventuality occurs and do not grant jurisdiction to Ohio to hear her case.

Please note that the international human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC), has reported on this and provides details as to why Rifqa Bary is at risk.

Their report is provided below.

For more information, also see:
http://www.persecution.org/suffering/newssummpopup.php?newscode=10699

Freedom of religion is a fundamental right for all Americans – of every age, ethnic background, and national origin.

We urge you to act to protect this young woman’s safety and her inalienable human rights of freedom.

Regards,

Jeffrey Imm
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
Web: https://www.realcourage.org

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ICC Calls On Florida Social Services (DCF) to Not Return Christian Girl to Ohio — Rifqa Bary
— ICC reports: “May Face Honor Killing If Returned”
— “International Christian Concern (ICC) is calling upon officials in Florida to retain custody of a Rifqa Bary, a Christian girl who has alleged that her fundamentalist Muslim Father in Ohio threatened to kill her upon finding out about her conversion to Christianity. Rifqa faces a jurisdictional hearing Friday at 3:15 pm from Florida’s Department of Children and Family (DCF) to decide if she should be sent back to Ohio Social Services or her parents. ICC has extensive experience with fundamentalist Islam and is warning Florida officials that they must take these allegations seriously.”

“While most Americans cannot fathom how a father could kill his daughter over her religious choices, this is a common practice among fundamentalist Muslims overseas who follow Quran and Hadith injunctions against apostasy. Parents murder their own children if they feel dishonored by any number of acts, especially when it comes to apostasy. Honor killings have even happened here in the United States. On January 1, 2008, a Muslim father killed his own daughters in Irving, Texas in an honor killing (link). On January 26, 2009, Chaudry Rashid, a Pakistani born Muslim, killed his own daughter in Georgia because she wanted to leave a marriage arranged by her family. According to estimates by the United Nations Population Fund, there may be up to 5,000 female victims of honor killings annually.”

“Rifqa and her family came to the United States from Sri Lanka eight years ago. Four years ago she converted to Christianity. She kept her faith hidden until officials from her father’s mosque, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, confronted her father with the fact that his daughter was an apostate from Islam. Following pressure from the Islamic community, her father became increasingly agitated. Rifqa told WFTV that her father took her laptop ‘and waved it in the air and he was about to beat me with it, and he said, ‘If you have this Jesus in your heart, you’re dead to me. You’re not my daughter.’ And I refused to speak but he said, ‘I will kill you. Tell me the truth.’ In these words, bad words, cuss words. So I knew that I had to get away.'”

“There are several reasons ICC has concerns over this case besides Rifqa’s allegations.”

“- Sgt. Jerry Cupp, the police officer from Columbus that did the investigation into Rifqa’s case gave a statement to the press saying Mohamed Bary (Rifqa’s father) ‘comes across to me as a loving, caring, worried father about the whereabouts and the health of his daughter.’  An ICC source that spoke directly with Sgt. Cupp says that Sgt. Cupp reported to him that he had spoken with 20 different people who warned him that Rifqa’s life was in danger.”

“- Florida’s DCF has a long history of incompetence, including turning back children to parents who end up killing the child under investigation.”

“- According to ICC sources, Rifqa, upon leaving home, left a note explaining her decision to run away was because she would never be forced to go back to Islam.”

“- It is ICC’s understanding that Rifqa’s friends urged her to go to her school counselor to report parental abuse after she repeatedly came to school with bruises. ICC sources said there had been a culture and history of violence in the family.”

“- Statements have been made by those connected with the family that Rifqa was brainwashed and kidnapped. Kidnap victims don’t typically get on a bus alone and ride across country.”

“- The Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Columbus where her father attends is known for having ties to radical Islam.”

“- Taqiyya (pronounced tak-e-ya): is the Muslim practice of disinformation, deception and keeping one’s convictions secret. Taqiyya is widely practiced by Islamists like those connected with the Noor Islamic Cultural Center. Statements from those connected with Noor or groups like CAIR in regards to an inflammatory case like this need to be evaluated carefully.”

“Jeff King, ICC’s President, says, ‘We are extremely concerned about Rifqa. As of today, DCF has not filed any petition to keep Rifqa in Florida. This lack of a petition seems to indicate that DCF intends to turn her over to either her parents or Ohio officials. DCF has a long history of making the wrong decision in child endangerment cases. In fact, in some cases DCF has returned children to their parents who ended up killing the child. Will this happen again? Based on our extensive international experience with fundamentalist Islam, we strongly believe that Rifqa’s life will be in danger if FDCF decides to send her back to Ohio. We call upon authorities in Florida to retain custody of Rifqa.'”

“Please contact officials in Florida and express your concern for the life and safety of Rifqa.”

Here is the contact information for the officials in Florida:

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

Other Reports:

— Court Expected to Send Runaway Teen Home Despite Muslim Honor Killing Fears — Rifqa Bary

— Florida: Ohio Girl Says Family Threatens to Kill Her for Converting from Islam to Christianity

— YouTube Video Interview

Pakistan: U.S. Envoy Richard Holbrooke meets with Pakistan Extremist Fazl ur-Rehman “defender of Taliban interests”

Reuters reports on U.S. Envoy Richard Holbrooke meeting with Pakistan Extremist Fazl-ur-Rehman; according to Global Security, Maulana Fazlur Rehman is a well-known “defender of the interests of the Taliban in the grand Deobandi alliance mostly spearheaded by the jihadi militia.”
— aka Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman aka Fazlur Rehman aka Fazl aka Fazal ur Rehman

— August 19, 2009 – Reuters: “Obama reaches out to Islamist parties in Pakistan”

— February 19, 2009 – NWFP: Sharia Law deal with president, PM consent: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman

— February 9, 2009: Muslim Ummah and Madrassahas are on hit list of America:  JUI-F’s Fazl
—- “He also urged upon the international community to give the
Islamic countries their due right of implementation of Islamic Shariah in their own ideological countries.”

— In January 2008, Maulana Fazlur Rehman (aka Maulana Fazl) stated that he would continue to lead “efforts for the implementation of a true Islamic system” in Pakistan and cited his “achievements” in the NWFP, and promotion of Sharia.

— On November 20, 2007, U.S. Ambassador Patterson met with Taliban promoter Maulana Fazlur Rehman, as part of promoting “free and fair elections.”

— Jeffrey Imm research: The leader of the Pakistan political party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), Maulana Fazl ur-Rehman, was a political ally of Benazir Bhutto and the PPP of which Mr. Zardari is co-chairman. According to Tahir Amin in his “Case Study on Pakistan’s Recognition of Taliban”, under the Benazir Bhutto administration: “The Deeni Madressahs led by the JUI (F) provided the manpower. Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, a close ally of the PPP who had been made the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of Foreign Affairs, also played a key role in garnering the support for the Taliban in the corridors of power. Various Pakistani governmental organisations like the PTCL, Railway, PIA and Ministry of Communications provided the infrastructural assistance to the Taliban. The ISI began to provide military supplies, logistical support, technical know how and the extensive knowledge of the Afghan situation.”

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— August 19, 2009 – Reuters: “Obama reaches out to Islamist parties in Pakistan”

U.S. President Barack Obama has started reaching out to some of Pakistan’s most fervent Islamist and anti-American parties, including one that helped give rise to the Taliban, trying to improve Washington’s image in the nuclear-armed state.

Obama’s special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, is initiating dialogue between the United States and religious parties previous administrations had largely shunned, both sides said.

“The purpose is to broaden the base of American relations in Pakistan beyond the relatively narrow circle of leaders Washington has previously dealt with,” explained Vali Nasr, senior adviser to Holbrooke.

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Bush presidency, questioned Holbrooke’s timing for trying to engage Taliban sympathizers on the eve of elections in neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are battling the hardline Islamic group.

“As a general proposition, democracy in Pakistan is fragile enough now that negotiating with people that some on the democratic side of the Pakistani spectrum would think themselves are terrorists strikes me as fairly risky,” Bolton said.

“What we ought to be doing is making sure that our ties with the military are strong because the gravest risk is radical penetration of the military.”

At one of this week’s sessions, Liaqat Baloch, a top member of the religious, right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, told Holbrooke he welcomed the new administration’s public change in tone toward Muslims around the world.

But Baloch said he was disturbed to see “no change in practice” in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where Obama has stepped up military operations against the Taliban on both sides of the border.

Holbrooke invited Jamaat-e-Islami, whom some U.S. officials compare to the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, to visit the heavily guarded American embassy compound in Islamabad, seeking to dispel long-running rumors that thousands of U.S. Marines would be based there.

“NEW ERA”

Holbrooke rejected the party’s complaints about a Western “assault” on Islam, saying “that could not be further from the truth” with Obama, who has roots in the religion, now in the White House.

Fazl-ur-Rehman, whose Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Islam party was active in rousing support for the Taliban in 1990s, also got an audience with Holbrooke and his team.

Rehman denies al Qaeda’s responsibility for the September 11, 2001, attacks, and once warned that if U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, no American in Pakistan would be safe.

In more recent years, however, Rehman’s relationship with the Taliban has grown uneasy, and he has publicly supported negotiations between the U.S.-backed government in Kabul and the Islamist group.

“His hands aren’t exactly clean,” Lisa Curtis of the Heritage Foundation said of Rehman. “He is associated with the Taliban.”

But she described his party as a legitimate political force that has met with U.S. officials in the past.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari praised Holbrooke’s meetings with Islamist parties as “a new era” aimed at promoting reconciliation and dialogue instead of “the violent mindset.”

“We need to help Obama. He’s a breath of fresh air to the world,” Zardari told reporters traveling with Holbrooke.

Dressed in colorful turbans and traditional robes, most of the parliamentarians and clerics representing religious parties as well as tribes appeared to relish access to Obama’s point-man for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“It’s good he’s listening,” said parliamentarian Munir Khan Orakzai of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas — ethnic Pashtun lands on the Afghan border — after pressing Holbrooke for a bigger share of development aid dollars.

Holbrooke, who has been meeting mainly Pakistan’s political and military establishment, called his nearly hour-long session with Baloch’s Jamaat-e-Islami “the most intellectually sustained debate I’ve ever had in this country.”

But immediately after their meeting, Baloch and his delegation took to the streets, leading a protest against U.S. policy in Pakistan and the region.

Communist China: Human Rights Activist / Lawyer Xu Zhiyong in Prison

— Asia News reports: “Well-known lawyer and activist Xu Zhiyong in prison for ‘tax evasion'”
— “Xu is said to have failed to pay taxes owed by Gongmeng, a human rights organisation. In reality, experts suggest the authorities are demanding the payment of business taxes to silence dissent ahead of the celebrations to mark the 60 years of the People’s Republic of China.”
— “After spending three weeks in prison Xu Zhiyong, a well-known Chinese human rights lawyer, was formally charged with tax evasion. This confirms what many experts fear, namely that the government is cracking down on human rights activists ahead of 1 October, the day of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in order to prevent protests and dissent.”

Iraq: Nearly 100 killed in sectarian supremacist attacks to intimidate Shiites

BBC:  Blasts bring carnage to Baghdad

— AP: Wave of blasts in Iraqi capital kills at least 95
— “More than 300 wounded in attacks aimed at government, commercial sites”
— “Iraqi officials blamed al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents, echoing U.S. military warnings that the militant group is trying to provoke new bloodshed to undermine public trust in the Shiite-led Iraqi government.”

— Al-Qaeda kills almost 100 in Baghdad bomb carnage

Egypt: Report on Christian Copt Churches Attacked

— WorldMag reports: “Churches attacked and Christians arrested? Egypt’s ancient church faces new levels of persecution”
— “As 30-year-old Fulla Asaad and her mother-in-law prepared a midday meal on July 11, they spied three Muslim men with cans of kerosene running through the home’s courtyard in their small, Egyptian town. Yelling for help, they did their best to stop them but the men poured fuel on the adjacent building — a small structure the Asaads had donated to their church. The men set it on fire — the only gathering place for the Coptic Christian community in Ezbet Basilious, a village in Upper Egypt south of Cairo.”
— “After questioning witnesses, local police arrested two Copts, Asaad and 35-year-old Reda Gamal Huzayin, and accused them of attacking their own church. Part of a growing trend throughout Egypt’s Coptic communities, local police and security forces are framing Christians while the perpetrators escape prosecution. And as Islamic radicalism spreads across a nation that plays a key role in the region, so have attacks against the region’s largest and oldest Christian community.”

Canadian Pakistani Christians hold awareness rally on persecution in Pakistan

Canadian Pakistani Christians hold awareness rally on persecution in Pakistan
— Pakistan Christian Post reports:
— “Scarborough: August 19, 2009. (PCP) Despite the Scorching heat of Sunday noon, temperatures rising to 32c the determined friends of Christian Minority of Pakistan held an awareness rally on August 16, 2009 to protest the Acts of Evil by the hands of Muslim Extremists in Scarborough, Canada at the doorsteps of St. Barnabas Church which holds 3 services each Saturday and Sunday which very much get attended by 500 to 700 worshipers each service.”