Muslim Teen Fears for Life after Changing Religion

ICC Note

“She is a person who is ripe for apostate killing or mercy killing ”

By John Couwels

09/03/2009 United States (CNN)-A Muslim teenager from Ohio says her father threatened to kill her because she converted to Christianity.

Rifqa Bary, 17, ran away from her family in Columbus , Ohio , in July and took refuge in the central Florida home of the Rev. Blake Lorenz with the Global Revolution Church in Orlando .

The teenager, in a sworn affidavit, claims her father, Mohamed Bary, 47, was pressured by the mosque the family attends in Ohio to “deal with the situation.” In the court filing, Rifqa Bary stated her father said, “If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me!” The teenager claims her father added, “I will kill you!”

In a court filing Monday, John Stemberger, Rifqa Bary’s attorney and president of the Christian advocacy organization Florida Family Policy Council, accused the parents’ Ohio mosque of having ties to terrorism and radical Islam. The Noor Islamic Cultural Center has denied the allegations.

Stemberger told CNN he agreed with his client that she would be killed by radical Muslims if she is returned to Ohio .

“She is a person who is ripe for apostate killing or mercy killing. I’m not going to let my client slip away in the night by going back,” said Stemberger.

Stemberger is asking the court to keep Rifqa Bary in the custody of the state of Florida until she turns 18 in a year.