Converted Muslim Teen Fears Honor Killing
 

I'm sure that a lot of people have already heard about this: "Muslim teen fears for life after changing religion".

Obviously, my own life experience (Sarai's Story, post #15) colors my opinion. I'm curious as to what others think.

I think that there are many factors that must be taken into consideration here before a decision is made.

Regardless of which one is right, I hope it is made with her best interest and safety in mind, and should she be sent to her family, she will remain safe.

No matter if her family would kill her in an honor killing or not, the girl definitely THINKS they would. And just based on her fear alone, I can see justification for her being apart from her family. She is 17- so almost an adult.

I would hope that major family counseling would occur before they would even think of sending her back to her family.

No matter if the fear is rational or not, the fear is there. and it needs to be addressed. I would be interested to see if her fears subside if she is moved away from the the pastors.

Do you mean back with her family, or just to somewhere other than with the pastors? To me, it sounds like the fear is coming from the girl herself, and not from the pastors. If that's the case, then I can't see how being away from the pastors would help her be less fearful.

Just away from the pastors- to a neutral site. It sounds like she has been talking to the pastors over the internet before she ran away, so I wonder if some of the fear could have been put in her head by them. Even if unintentionally. (such as- you have converted- do you fear an honor killing? Innocent question that could get her wondering).

I heard a preacher speak about another religion when I was in high school, and to be honest- listening to him scared me to death. It took me a few days after I heard him to be able to work everything out in my own mind.

^^ Makes sense.

If she were moved to a neutral location, would her parents have legal rights to know what that location is? (I have no experience on any level with parental rights in cases like this.) If she can keep the location a secret from her father, I would definitely expect her level of fear to subside.

Really?

Because to me, this all sounds like horseshit from a confused 17 year old who found a "loophole" of sorts, and given the information we have (she's a cheerleader, so obviously not in a burqa, etc.) I can't see why the Occam's Razor solution is "obvious mercy killing candidate".

I mean, the Florida church took her on, instead of referring her to Columbus-area services? A similar (and potentially related) organization has provided the attorney and press releases? This sounds like it is being pushed as an 'agenda' - everything about the way it has been handled seems right out of the propaganda playbook, especially with pro-Christian groups seeking new ways to "fight the tide" in light of gay marriage, Obama, etc.

They straight-up accused the mosque of ties to terrorism. No proof given - just an assertion. Come on.

Think how easy this becomes, via Facebook:

"My father is angry that I'm becoming a Christian!"
"OMG! You know some Muslims consider mercy killings appropriate for bad daughters! Does your dad think you're being a bad daughter by converting? Did he say anything angry? He wants to kill you!"
"Fly me to Florida! That's exactly what happened, I'm sure of it now!"

That's why I said IF it's the case that the fear is coming from the girl and not the pastor, then I don't see how removing her from the pastor would help her be less fearful.

The way I interpreted the article, the girl's attorney, not the pastor, is the one who accused the mosque of ties to terrorism. Plus, I don't automatically assume that when someone converts, there's an agenda on the pastor's part. I can see the Facebook dialogue happening the way you've postulated, but surely there are other ways it could've happened that led to her ending up in Florida.

I don't automatically think she's a mercy killing candidate, but it's hard not to at least consider it when she says her father said, "you're dead to me" and "I'll kill you." Maybe she's lying. Maybe, as you suggest, she was persuaded by the pastor. It's hard to know what to believe.

I'm suspicious of all parties in this case. There's so many possibilities.

There is no mercy killing is Islam. It's a cultural practice that is no confused with a religion. Like I've said, honor kiling does not exist in Southeast Asia. You tried to do that in Indonesia, the cops will come in kicking and throw you in jail for attempted murder.

Well, this is interesting. Evidently, Ms. Bary now has a wiki page, and the link was one I followed from that page. Page 5 is particularly interesting... In short, Ms. Bary told the FDLE that she had hitchhiked to Florida using money she had saved from a job. In actuality, Brian Williams, the 21 year-old "associate" who baptized her, purchased her Greyhound ticket.

I don't know; there are so many conflicting stories here it's hard to tell what to believe. I can't imagine what either side (daughter or parents) is going through.

I agree (well except for the part about the daughter). It must be so hard for the parents having to listen to these allegations, when they most likely are innocent. The daughter knew exactly what she was doing--whether she was coerced (sp?) or not. I like that this report came out to show how many lies the daughter is pulling to try and make her parents out to be the bad guys.

It's terrible that so many people are already critical of Muslims, and for the daughter to just throw around terms like 'honor killing' and other things related to the Islam/Christianity stuff, is just what people need to condemn the parents, even if the parents are innocent.

No, we only know that she SAID she thinks they would. There are all kinds of reasons a 17-year-old might want to run away to Florida. There are even more reasons why a teen who has run away to Florida wouldn't want to go home to her parents. Maybe she fears for her life -- and maybe this is a really good way to avoid going back home to face the (non-murderous) music.
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Buttsex Live

[hijack]
My sorority sister was killed in Malaysia. Last time I looked, that was in Southeast Asia.

[/hijack]

Was she murdered or was it honor killing? Give me details.

It's in the very first post, but here it is again: Sarai's story. It's the 15th post. They had agreed to raise their children in the United States, but he changed his mind. The holy men were present when she was executed for family honor.

I don't think I mention it there, but her last letter to me was in code, and "Sarai" said that she feared being punished for not always being obedient, she was afraid of losing her sons, among other things. Unfortunately, she had every reason to worry. :(

All too much. If I had seen it before this happened, I would have been even more weirded out.

I met the Not Without My Daughter woman when I was an OT student.. I was treating someone in her household (home health care). Her daughter had that haunted, traumatized look in her eyes.. so sad.

Or what?

Or why be on here if there is not positive contribution to the topic? Start a new thread if it's that serious.

(sorry, thought it was the quote)

Anyway, the heavy moderating has the opposite effect. People will stick to the topic if you just ignore the off topic posts. You can't tell us what to do.

That is really sad to have such a public and traumatizing childhood (assuming the reports are accurate).

Is she Arabic or Malay? Or is she Sawak? These questions are very2 important. Honor killing in SE Asia is foreign and I will continue to say so. It's an outdated cultural exercise from the Middle East that is still followed by those who are descendent of that area in the region. However, it's an alien concept to the region as it's frown upon.

Like I've said, there was a case of Afghan refugee doing the same thing. They were arrested and kicked out of the country. It's an alien concept, just like the honor killing you see in Europe. It's carried out by immigrant from Pakistan. However, it's not native to the UK. So, you can't say it's something dones time and time again in the region.

There is no proof that is' an embedded cultural practices in the region, unless you happen to say that Arabic culture is native to the region.

How old would the daughter be by now? Has her father ever tried to visit her?

Sarai is dead. She was an American, her husband from Malaysia. Supposedly, he was touted as a hero - he's a newscaster in Kuala Lampur (or was).

I wouldn't know enough to say that this is the usual practice. I only know what Sarai told me in her letters/telephone, and what her sister told us about her death.