CHOOSE LIFE, Judge Adams! Rifqa Bary is ENTITLED to remain in Florida.

UPDATE--UPDATE--UPDATE--8/20/09

It sure looks like Ms. Bary's attorneys are on the ball, here is a PDF of their latest Court filing. Excellent work!!

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Time to put on my Florida attorney hat, for a change…

We’re all appalled by the prospect of the threatened Islamist honor-murder of 17-year-old Rifqa Bary, who signed her own Islamist death-warrant by converting to Christianity and admitting it. But so long as Ms. Bary remains outside of the clutches of her vengeful parents, it is less likely that she will be murdered. The good news is that Ms. Bary's lawyers have an excellent case to keep her free, in accordance with Florida law.

Dependency Court (responsible for ruling on parental involvement in cases of alleged neglect or abuse of children) Judge Gail Adams has allowed Ms. Bary to be "sheltered" temporarily, while the Department of Children and Families investigates the past and potential homelife of Ms. Bary. It is important to note that Rifqa's parents have already confirmed to the Judge that they have committed actions that qualify as felony child abuse in Florida. Therefore, Judge Adams has ample legal authority to keep Rifka "sheltered" certainly for the 11 months it will take for her to reach her 18th birthday.

It must be said that we needn't speculate on whether Rifqa's parents have already committed child abuse against her, since her Dad, Mohamed, was thoughtful enough to confess on behalf of his wife, although obviously sugar-coating the murderous threat we all know was actually delivered:

She had a falling out with her mother the night before she disappeared, he said. He was out of town. [So why didn't the Court question the wife? Almost sounds like one of those Islamic courts where the woman's testimony is worth less than that of a man.--J.O.] Rifqa had gone out without permission, was gone more than three hours, and when she came home, her mother scolded her and told her that because of her behavior, the whole family might have to return to their native Sri Lanka, Mohamed Bary said.
His wife was upset and there were no plans to leave the U.S., Mohamed Bary said, but that apparently frightened his daughter.

Apparently.

Let us ask: What else but a severe, bona fide "mental injury" could cause a girl described by her father as "an excellent student, a cheerleader in a prestigious school in Columbus who got A's and B's [and] wanted to go to college and become a nurse," to suddenly flee her home and relocate a thousand miles away?

So that is what Mother Bary, via the hearsay testimony of her husband, has allegedly alleged. Well, THAT RIGHT THERE may be charged as felony child abuse under Florida law. For those who think I am exaggerating, I commend to you the following story that came out as this article was being prepared:

A Gainesville [Florida] father has been arrested for hitting his daughter with a pizza slice.
The 38-year-old man was arrested early Friday on a charge of child abuse without great harm, a third-degree felony. The man's name was being withheld to protect the identity of the victim.
Deputy Nick Vickers says the man used racist and sexist terms when he asked his daughter to turn off her computer, and she fired back with some crude language of her own.
Vickers says the father "intentionally threw a slice of pizza at the victim, striking her in the back of the neck, against her will."
The girl, whose age was not available, called 911 and her father was arrested.

And then there is Florida's legal definition of those activities that constitute child abuse--notice that if the parent only THREATENS to do something, and that threat only results in a mental injury that is LIKELY to cause the child's mental or emotional health to be significantly impaired, then there is child abuse...a VERY low standard...:

ABUSE: Any willful or threatened act or omission that results in any physical, mental, or sexual injury or harm that causes or is likely to cause the child's physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired. NEGLECT: Any act or omission where a child is deprived of, or allowed to be deprived of, necessary supervision, food, clothing, shelter, or medical treatment, or a child is permitted to live in an environment when such deprivation or environment causes the child's physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired or to be in danger of being significantly impaired. The foregoing circumstances shall not be considered neglect if caused primarily by financial inability unless actual services for relief have been offered to and rejected by the caretaker responsible.

THREATENED HARM: A situation, circumstances or behavior which leads a prudent person to have reasonable cause to suspect abuse or neglect has occurred or may occur in the immediate future if no intervention is provided.

When we link the (almost surely deceptively minimized) Bary parents' confession to Rifqa's much more harrowing claims, and to Florida's child abuse law, we have an open-and-shut case that Rifka Bary qualifies to be "sheltered" by the State. Considering her own near-adult status, her maturity, her clear wish to remain with Pastors Blake and Beverly Lorenz, and the Lorenzes clear ability and dedication to allow her to remain with them, it is a legally unassailable argument that she needs to be returned to the dedicated couple that probably saved her life, the Lorenzes.

Unless Judge Adams chooses to ignore the law, it is an easy call for her. Place Rifqa with the Lorenzes!

Oh, and by the way, if the Judge sends her back to her parents, there is a very credible chance that she will be promptly murdered by her own family, as has happened to so many young "disobedient" daughters in North American Islamic families recently. By the way.