What’s Wrong with the World

The men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark.

About

What’s Wrong with the World is dedicated to the defense of what remains of Christendom, the civilization made by the men of the Cross of Christ. Athwart two hostile Powers we stand: the Jihad and Liberalism...read more

Rifqa Bary Update

For those of you who are praying for Rifqa, things are not looking too good as of today, but they could be at least somewhat worse.

The Florida judge has agreed that Ohio will have jurisdiction, and plans are underway to send Rifqa back to Ohio. Ohio says (but I don't think they can be bound by this as some sort of promise) that they are planning to send Rifqa to live with a foster family in Ohio. I hope the foster family has good security. Even if that is true, it is unclear for how long she would be with that family or whether, if she were returned to her family, they could be prevented from leaving the country with her.

However, she does not return immediately. Rifqa's parents are--de facto even if this has not been ruled explicitly--in contempt of court for failure to provide their and Rifqa's immigration documentation to the Florida court. The Florida judge is very annoyed about this, and the Ohio judge has agreed that Rifqa need not be sent back to Ohio until the documents are provided. It is unclear, at least to me, that there is any substantive point here. That is, I do not know that the actual information concerning immigration can or will make a difference to whether Rifqa is sent back to Ohio. The point appears to be procedural: Her parents are not going to be allowed the victory of having jurisdiction (and Rifqa) transferred to Ohio while simply thumbing their nose (as they have done over a period of months) at a repeated, explicit court order to them for the production of certain documents. My own completely personal guess is that the Ohio judge agreed to this because judges don't like to let other judges be defied. Meanwhile, Rifqa stays in Florida, but now it looks as though that will be only for a short time.

It appears that Rifqa and her parents are now here illegally--apparently on expired visas. The immigration documents will, if they are produced, demonstrate this to Judge Dawson, the Florida judge. It's unclear what that means--whether in any way that could be used either for or against Rifqa. But the parents' stonewalling on the documents has gotten Rifqa a couple more weeks in Florida.

Rifqa has requested that she be allowed to see her Christian friends, the Lorenzes, one more time before leaving Florida. Pamela Geller was unable to discover whether this will be allowed.

We can only pray that if and when she is returned to Ohio the Ohio court will not give her to her parents, much less let her parents take her out of the country.

Comments are closed. As readers know, there is a time-wasting Muslim commentator who shows up on all my threads about Rifqa, and I haven't the time to be either patient or impatient with him. I am providing this update for my readers, as I know there are some who do not follow Pamela Geller or other sites that provide the information.