Rifqa wins a round: apostate girl doesn't have to sit down with parents she fears will kill her

It's not too late: you can still send Rifqa a Christmas card, and the CAIR Grinches have failed to prevent her from receiving them. Pamela has the address here.

"Magistrate rules that runaway doesn't have to sit down with parents," by Meredith "Hijab" Heagney for the Columbus Dispatch, December 22 (thanks to Pamela, who has more details here).

The magistrate in the Rifqa Bary case ruled today that the 17-year-old who ran away from her Columbus home in July does not have to sit down for mediation with her parents.

There were several issues resolved today at the hearing in Franklin County Juvenile Court, including:

* Mediation. Magistrate Mary Goodrich said issues now being discussed would best be resolved with individual counseling instead of group mediation.

That could be a bad break for Rifqa, if she is forced to see a Muslim counselor, as she has been pressured to do.

* Third-party messages. Bary's parents don't want her to receive any cards or letters directly, and had filed a motion that any messages first go to Franklin County Children Services. Omar Tarazi, the family's attorney, withdrew that motion today.

He should never have filed it. A CAIR lawyer trying to withhold Christmas cards from a little girl could be more damaging in the long run to this unsavory group than its unindicted co-conspirator status in a Hamas terror funding case.

* Rifqa's mental health. Assistant County Prosecutor Chris Julian said that a counselor was trying to determine whether 17-year-old, whose full name is Fathima Rifqa Bary, has post-traumatic stress disorder.

What? Post-traumatic stress disorder? Is just anyone and everyone getting that these days?

In July, Rifqa ran away and moved in with two pastors -- a married couple -- in Orlando, Fla., whom she had met on the Internet.

Rifqa said her father, Mohamed Bary, had threatened to kill her for leaving Islam -- the family religion -- for Christianity.

Authorities in Florida and Ohio could find no credible threat to her safety, and she returned to Franklin County on Oct. 27 and has been living in a foster home....

Authorities in Florida and Ohio wouldn't know a credible threat to her safety if a man were holding a scimitar to her neck.

With thanks to JihadWatch