CNN's Susan Canidotti interviews Tom Trento.
A few days ago I shared dinner with a beautiful young Muslim woman in Paris. Her lovely and serene smile does not reveal the grief she has known. In 2002, her 17-year-old sister, Sohane Benziane was drenched in gasoline and burned to death by a former boyfriend while his friends watched.
His simple reason for planning and staging her brutal murder was that she would not obey him. When the police escorted him back to the crime scene for investigation purposes, he was cheered by young men from the outer Paris immigrant slum. Sohane continued to be abused in death when a plaque in her memory was repeatedly desecrated.
To a Muslim, there is no such thing as an innocent infidel. Learn this fact now and learn it well, before you read the rest of this missive. The Qur'an, Hadith and Sunnah all say that very explicitly.
While the dust and smoke was still days from settling after the attacks on 9/11, Yasser Arafat (then the head of the Palestinian government) openly condemned the attacks. What nobody pointed out at the time was that he had previously - on multiple occasions - praised the "martyrdom operations" of suicide bombers who routinely blew themselves up in crowded ice cream parlors, pizza restaurants, and buses in Israel to kill as many Jews as they could. Arafat was never questioned by the MSM about this duplicity.
But those who have studied Islam can tell you exactly what it was all about.
Rifqa Bary was a teenager living in Ohio. Her Parents are Muslims and belong to a Mosque with a dubious history of being linked to terrorism.
Rifqa recently ran away after her father discovered that she had become a Christian.Rifqa ran away to Florida to a Christian couple whom she had met on Facebook. Rifqa says her father was going to kill her as an honor killing for changing her religion and becoming a Christian.
Temporarily a Florida court is letting the 17 year old stay in the custody of foster parents. While Rifqa is almost legally an adult by age her and her family are not citizens and the family appears to be almost five years late on their visa.
For the past week the media was conducting a full-court press to disassociate the terror-tied Ohio mosque named in Florida court documents in the Rifqa Bary case from her parents, Mohamed and Aysha Bary.
After Rifqa's attorney submitted an extensively footnoted 35 page brief to the court on the Noor Islamic Cultural Center's ties to terrorism and Rifqa's own affidavit explaining her family's association with the terror mosque, the Orlando Slantinel and the Columbus Disgrace went into overdrive to push the narrative that Rifqa's family were not involved with the mosque.
"Rifqa Bary who?" mosque officials told their media dhimmis.
High-school student Rifqa Bary says her conversion to Christianity threatened her life. Her Muslim parents say they just want their daughter back-no matter what faith she practices.
Brian Williams wasn't sure what to make of his young friend's stories.
He'd met Rifqa Bary, a high-school student from Gahanna, Ohio, at a prayer house at Ohio State University late last year.
Intensely devout and deeply inquisitive, she recounted that she came from a Muslim family but had converted to Christianity.
This had enraged her parents, who threatened her with violence, she said. She had to hide her faith, conceal her Bible, and sneak away to attend church.
Rifqa Bary's parents speak for themselves.
Coverage of the September 3rd Hearing.
Earlier this year the contents of an email dealing with the Shari'a prescribed method for dealing with apostasy, authored by Harvard University's Muslim chaplain, Taha Abdul-Basser, began making the rounds.
Abdul-Basser's explanation of what is the appropriate penalty, if any, for Muslims who have left the faith is of interest given the high visibility of the Rifqa Bary case, in which a 17 year-old Christian convert has fled her family in Ohio, seeking asylum in Florida because she is fearful of being killed for her apostasy.
The chaplain's commentary is important because he seems to be the embodiment of what has become a trite phrase, a fully Westernized practitioner of "moderate Islam." It stands to reason then that his religious studies, combined with a record of having excelled in the Western academic system bestows a certain amount of gravity to his pronouncements on Islam, especially as it applies within secular societies such as ours.
Two Christian girls. Two sets of distraught parents. And two state courts smack in the middle of it.
One of these courts is in New Hampshire, where a judge recently ordered that home-schooled Amanda Kurowski be sent to public school.
The order signed by Family Court Justice Lucinda V. Sandler says the 10-year-old's Christian faith could use some shaking up - and that the local public school is just the place to do it.
So while the child's lawyers at the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal outfit, filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider, last week Amanda started fifth grade at a local public school.
"I don't know if you know about honor killings? But this faith-you guys don't understand, Islam is very different than you guys think." So avows runaway apostate Rifqa Bary, the focus of a so-called dependency battle that is expanding into a national debate on the conflict between Islamic mores and American freedom.
The 17-year-old had been practicing Christianity in secret for four years when she fled her home in central Ohio in July, fearing for her life after her parents discovered her defection. The Sri Lankan Bary family has been in the U.S. since 2000.
I have said from the very first that Rifqa Bary is the highest value target in America. Apostasy is the most egregious crime against Islam. Her crime is not just against the family. It is against Islam.
I know Ohio law enforcement and Florida law enforcement found no threat to Rifqa, but perhaps they can put down the kool aid for five minutes and do their job.
Speakers: Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs), Robert Spencer (Jihad Watch), Pastor Jamal Jivanjee & Tom Trento (Florida Security Council).
Mohammad Lufti advocate for HAMAS - Hezbollah & CAIR, disrupts Florida Security Council's press conference.
What occurred both inside and outside the Orlando Circuit Court room on September 3rd at the Rifqa Bary hearing was nothing short of Jihad against all apostates.
Muslim fury was focused on so-called 'Christian extremists' who had allegedly swayed a teen-age apostate originally from Sri Lanka to convert to Christianity from Islam.
In court, the petit teenager dressed demurely wearing a silver cross and holding a bible. Miss Bary's case is being presided over by Judge Daniel Dawson. Judge Dawson has foremost in mind two basic issues; securing jurisdiction and the safety of Miss Bary.
Dawson's August 21st hearing decision permitting her to remain in child custody in Florida. This has clearly outraged Muslims who demand her return to her Muslim parents in Ohio and an uncertain fate.
Powerful Radio Show Featuring:
PAMELA GELLER - NONIE DARWISH - TOM TRENTO
Our program will focus on the case of Rifqa Bary, a 17-year-old girl who fled her Muslim family in Ohio in July after converting to Christianity.
Discussing this case and radical Muslim extremism will be our panel of four guests.
Our first guest is Tom Trento, head of the Florida Security Council, who has been testifying on Rifqa's behalf.
Next is Pamela Geller, founder of the Atlas Shrugs website and former editor of the New York Observer, who has been blogging extensively about this case.
Our other guests will be Nonie Darwish, a Muslim convert to Christianity and author of two books, most recently, Cruel and Usual Punishment, an expose of Sharia law, and Hamid Mzdeh, a former Shiite Muslim now a reader of The Urantia Book.
Tom Trento from the Florida Security Council discussed the Bary case with Fox News.
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Tom Trento from the Florida Security Council talked to FOX 35.
The Florida Security Council's goal is to raise awareness of the problems related to radical Islam.
Jamal has been friends with Rifqa for over a year. Here is evidence of Rifqa living in secrecy and fear.
Her parents did not know she was a Christian. She worshiped in secret and she was terrified.
Jamal Jivanjee is currently serving as the executive director of Illuminate. Illuminate was founded in January 2007, but prior to that Jamal served as the lead pastor of newlife-osu, a collegiate church at The Ohio State University.
I'm in Orlando, Florida, at the Rifqa Bary hearing. Tom Trento of the Florida Security Council, Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and I held a press conference outside the courtroom a little while ago, for a skeptical and sometimes hostile press. The press conference was disrupted several times by Muhammad Lutfi, an Ohio Muslim who declared his support for the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations; he has clearly taken a great interest in this case.
ORLANDO, Fla.- The teen who ran away from her Ohio home after converting from Islam to Christianity will stay with her foster parents in Orlando for the time being, a judge ruled.
Judge Daniel Dawson also decide to seal Florida authorities report on findings of Rifqa Bary's allegations that her parents in Ohio would kill her because she converted from Islam to Christianity .
Attorney for runaway girl's father denies abuse, threats.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP)
A Florida judge has ordered sealed a police report about a teenage girl who ran away from her Ohio home to Orlando after converting from Islam to Christianity.
The judge signed the order Thursday sealing the report for at least ten days until lawyers for 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, her parents and child welfare officials can read it. The hearing was to determine whether the teen should return to Ohio or stay in Florida.
The teen ran away to Florida in July, saying she feared being killed for changing religions.
The judge said two weeks ago that he would postpone deciding whether Bary should return to Ohio until after the investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was completed.
The Center for Security Policy-- along with the Florida Security Council and Nonie Darwish, bestselling author of Cruel and Usual Punishment-- hosted a blogger conference call to discuss the latest developments in the plight of 17-year-old Rifqa Bary.
Ms. Bary-- a Muslim who converted to Christianity -- fled her family in Ohio out of fear that, in accordance with what authoritative Islam calls shariah, they would take her life as punishment for leaving the Islamic faith.
As was discussed on the call, this fear has been reinforced by the fact that her family's mosque, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center, has been tied to terrorism and jihadist ideology from its inception.
Ms. Bary has fled to Florida where her attorneys are trying to prevent state authorities from sending her back to her family and possibly her death.
ORLANDO - New developments in the Rifqa Bary case revealed that the teen's parents attend a mosque in Ohio that has major ties to terrorist activities, Bary's attorney announced Monday.
Bary ran away from home after she said her parents threatened to kill her for converting from Islam to Christianity.
"Thank you for attending this press event over the phone, we believe this matter is of significant public interest. We appreciate your covering this story.
My name is John Stenburger, I'm a Orlando trial lawyer, I've been practicing for the last 14 years here in Orlando and throughout the state of Florida.
I'm an AV rated civil trial lawyer, I practice in the areas of personal injury, commercial law and litigation.
In addition to that I serve as a guardian ad litim, volunteer for ten years, representing abused and neglected children, and I've seen the silliest reasons for ripping kids out of their homes, like being overweight, and I've seen the most horrific reasons like feeding babies cocaine and locking them up in closets. so I have a little bit of the sense for the background for the process of dependency and w hat's going on here with juveniles when the state takes custody of them."
A controversial mosque in Ohio is now the focus of attention in the case of a Christian convert from Islam.
On Monday, an attorney for Rifqa Bary, the 17-year-old girl who ran away from her Ohio home, gave the court information detailing ties the mosque has to terrorism.
Attorney John Stemberger believes that the Noor Center, which her parents are members of, represents "a clear and present danger" to his client.
The Noor Islamic Cultural Center (hereinafter the Noor Center) in the Columbus, Ohio area is wholly owned by the American Islamic Waqf, an Ohio corporation. It is controlled by a self-appointed board and operates an extensive facility in the Columbus suburbs.
The mosque membership is quite diverse in ethnicity and background; however, it has been identified as one of the primary sources of Islamic extremism in Central Ohio.
As this facility is the spiritual home and directly connected to the Bary family's daily and weekly life as set forth in Rifqa Bary's Affidavit, (Exhibit A) concerns about the mosque's leadership and ideology are critical to understanding the potential threat to Rifqa Bary and this Honorable Court's decision about whether she should be declared a dependent of the state and or whether or not she should she be returned to her family.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
Mohamed Bary is a doting Muslim father, intent on giving his daughter the best education he can. But he says he made a terrible mistake last October: He bought her a laptop computer.
Because of that laptop and access to the Internet, he says he lost his daughter to Christian extremists.
The court ruling on Friday that allowed Rifqa Bary, the teenager who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled from her Muslim family in fear for her life, to stay in Florida rather than return to her parents, was unexpected.
The media shills and Islamic machinery in the U.S. never expected that G-d, Rifqa and the people would prevail upon the powers that be in Florida. So now they are in overdrive.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -
A 17-year-old girl who ran away from her Ohio home to Florida says she fears her parents will harm her for converting from Islam to Christianity, but her parents dismiss her claim and say she was brainwashed.
Her parents also question how the girl ended up in the home of a Florida family she met through an online prayer group.
Authorities are trying to determine whether the girl, Rifqa Bary, should stay in state custody or be returned to her family in Ohio.
Here is a transcript of the Rifqa Bary video.
We failed Amina and Sarah Said, Aqsa Parvez, and thousands of other women held captive by the "devout".
This young woman's testimony is a plea to the free world to stand for its values and its principles. How far we have fallen when a young woman is pleading to be free in the land of the free, home of the brave.
A report by the Florida Dept of Law Enforcement (FDLE) that has been sealed by the court investigating the Rifqa Bary abuse and honor killing allegations is set to be released today. While the report is still sealed, we can report based on law enforcement sources who have read the report that the FDLE interview of Rifqa's parents was supervised by Hamas front organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to my sources, this is what the report says:
Click here to continue reading this article »