Rifqa Bary and the Religious Right
Rifqa Bary, the 17-year old girl raised as a Muslim who converted to Christianity and ran away from home, claiming her parents were going to murder her, suddenly turned up on a conference call a few days ago, led by Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, and featuring Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
And when asked to pray, she began raving incoherently about “Jesus.” Warning: this is pretty disturbing and creepy stuff.
Florida authorities are investigating how she ended up on this call — because she’s supposed to be in protective custody and no one gave permission for it.
On Monday, DCF spokeswoman Carrie Hoeppner said the state agency “had no knowledge of this until it surfaced. Although she is 17, she remains in protective custody. Neither the Department nor do we believe her parents, gave permission for her participation in this call with strangers, which is of concern to us.”
“Right now, we are working to get more background on the video such as when it posted and who arranged it.”
Rifqa’s lawyer, John Stemberger, has not returned a call seeking comment.
