Rifqa Bary

This story has been on Fox News for several days now, but the interview of this young girl is so compelling. The girl, Rifqa Bary, is a 17-year-old girl from a Sri Lankan family in Ohio. She has converted to Christianity (from Islam) and has fled to a church in Florida because she fears that her family will kill her (honor killing). At this point, she is trying through the courts to be able to remain in Florida as her parents try to get her back to Ohio. The story pretty much speaks for itself.

I don't know how close this girl is to her 18th birthday, at which point, she is able to decide for herself where she wants to live. I pray that the Florida court allows her to stay in some sort of child welfare custody in the meantime.

Suffice to say, as I have said many times, there is no place in American society for the idea that a family would kill their children or wife in the name of honor or because they choose to follow another religion. (I understand that the family has denied having any such intentions.) It is shocking that this practice still exists in some parts of the world. I say never in America.