A best-selling author and critic of Islam is skeptical about a plan issued to reunite runaway Christian convert Rifqa Bary with her Muslim family.
The proposal was filed Monday in Franklin County Juvenile Court in Columbus, Ohio, by a government caseworker. It says 17-year-old Rifqa Bary needs to hear her parents' explanation of their religious beliefs and that the parents must listen to the girl's explanation of her Christian faith so that both sides can better understand Bary's summer runaway to Florida.
Bary has said she feared her father would harm or kill her for converting from Islam. Her father has denied this claim, but the reunification plan leaves open the possibility that the girl may not be forced to return home. Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, concurs.
"She shouldn't return home -- and if it were any other situation, there would be no possibility of her returning home," he argues. "If she were a Christian girl who had fled from her family and converted to Islam, nobody would be talking about her going home. Islam has this powerful deception machine in the United States."
Even considering the 17-year-old's claim, Spencer is fearful that authorities will choose to believe her father.
"It's inconceivable that the father is going to say, 'Well, in Islam, we have to kill the apostate, and thus we'll have to kill you.' He's not going to say that in front of the caseworker," states the critic of Islam. Spencer predicts Rifqa's father will "be all sweetness and love and then she'll be returned home," and because of that, he believes the teenage girl is now "in graver danger than ever."
"She shouldn't return home -- and if it were any other situation, there would be no possibility of her returning home," he argues. "If she were a Christian girl who had fled from her family and converted to Islam, nobody would be talking about her going home. Islam has this powerful deception machine in the United States."
Even considering the 17-year-old's claim, Spencer is fearful that authorities will choose to believe her father.
"It's inconceivable that the father is going to say, 'Well, in Islam, we have to kill the apostate, and thus we'll have to kill you.' He's not going to say that in front of the caseworker," states the critic of Islam. Spencer predicts Rifqa's father will "be all sweetness and love and then she'll be returned home," and because of that, he believes the teenage girl is now "in graver danger than ever."
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