Fathima Rifqa Bary
Since this topic was discussed before, it's probably worth mentioning again that Fathima Rifqa Bary's court case has been settled, and she is to return to her family.
The atheism community has two links that are worth reading: the first explains that Rifqa was never really all that good in being a 'secret Christian' in her family; the second has links to Youtube videos interviewing Rifqa's family and another one interviewing Rifqa herself (her prayer is worth listening to, imo). You can ignore the comments on the entries if you want to, I linked them because they were good resources.
It seemed as if she knew the death penalty for apostasy was present in Islam, but had no idea how it was really carried out -- her understanding of Islam strikes me as very Americanized. Penalties of apostasy are usually done by the state, not the family; where honour killing happens (which is not Islamic, but a kind of Middle Eastern culture that somehow survived both Christianization and Islamization) it is usually for something very arbitrary like 'family shame', which is usually sexual in nature, not religious. And of course the family knew about Rifqa's conversion long ago, so if they wanted to have killed her for converting they would have.
I'm delighted that Rifqa has found Christ, even if it is in a denomination and theological system that I was once part of and now personally reject. Nevertheless, I agree with Katelyn Beaty at Christianity Today, who warns her readers not to confuse the pitiful Bary family's natural and loving desire to have their daughter return to them as 'persecution', especially when there is real persecution going on in parts of the world like Pakistan, where people are really fearing for their lives. She was quickly shouted down in the comments, though.
To be honest, and I know this may seem offensive, but coming from a country where growth of Christianity is restricted in some ways (but not as suffocated as it can be), I suspect a lot of American Christians are envious of the martyrdom of Christians both in the days of St. Stephen and in some countries today, so instead of really seeking that martyrdom in the traditional way (by undergoing ascetism, which was how the pious pursued their martyrdom whenever Rome took a break from persecuting Christians, which it did from time to time), they play around with the idea of being persecuted, whether it's by secularism, the liberal left, the upcoming Muslim One World Caliphate, or whatever. I think Rifqa fell into that mentality, so she ended up imagining harm and persecution and oppression where there was none.
Above all else, what is the message that Christians doing this are sending out to the world? As observed by non-believers -- the members of the atheism community, for an example -- the Christians were extremely amoral. They had no qualm in doing what was nothing short of a kidnapping under the completely delusional belief that Rifqa's life was in danger (even if, nothing justified the planned escape route for her out of state, which gives me the impression that they were just playing at being persecuted).
Furthermore, for all their 'concern' for Muslims, they simply had no idea how Muslims generally perceived Christian missionaries: the most vicious attack against Christian missionaries by the Muslim community in general, is that Christian missionaries are unethical. A stunt like this does nothing but cement the perception.
The atheism community has two links that are worth reading: the first explains that Rifqa was never really all that good in being a 'secret Christian' in her family; the second has links to Youtube videos interviewing Rifqa's family and another one interviewing Rifqa herself (her prayer is worth listening to, imo). You can ignore the comments on the entries if you want to, I linked them because they were good resources.
It seemed as if she knew the death penalty for apostasy was present in Islam, but had no idea how it was really carried out -- her understanding of Islam strikes me as very Americanized. Penalties of apostasy are usually done by the state, not the family; where honour killing happens (which is not Islamic, but a kind of Middle Eastern culture that somehow survived both Christianization and Islamization) it is usually for something very arbitrary like 'family shame', which is usually sexual in nature, not religious. And of course the family knew about Rifqa's conversion long ago, so if they wanted to have killed her for converting they would have.
I'm delighted that Rifqa has found Christ, even if it is in a denomination and theological system that I was once part of and now personally reject. Nevertheless, I agree with Katelyn Beaty at Christianity Today, who warns her readers not to confuse the pitiful Bary family's natural and loving desire to have their daughter return to them as 'persecution', especially when there is real persecution going on in parts of the world like Pakistan, where people are really fearing for their lives. She was quickly shouted down in the comments, though.
To be honest, and I know this may seem offensive, but coming from a country where growth of Christianity is restricted in some ways (but not as suffocated as it can be), I suspect a lot of American Christians are envious of the martyrdom of Christians both in the days of St. Stephen and in some countries today, so instead of really seeking that martyrdom in the traditional way (by undergoing ascetism, which was how the pious pursued their martyrdom whenever Rome took a break from persecuting Christians, which it did from time to time), they play around with the idea of being persecuted, whether it's by secularism, the liberal left, the upcoming Muslim One World Caliphate, or whatever. I think Rifqa fell into that mentality, so she ended up imagining harm and persecution and oppression where there was none.
Above all else, what is the message that Christians doing this are sending out to the world? As observed by non-believers -- the members of the atheism community, for an example -- the Christians were extremely amoral. They had no qualm in doing what was nothing short of a kidnapping under the completely delusional belief that Rifqa's life was in danger (even if, nothing justified the planned escape route for her out of state, which gives me the impression that they were just playing at being persecuted).
Furthermore, for all their 'concern' for Muslims, they simply had no idea how Muslims generally perceived Christian missionaries: the most vicious attack against Christian missionaries by the Muslim community in general, is that Christian missionaries are unethical. A stunt like this does nothing but cement the perception.