ORLANDO, Florida -- An attorney for a teenager who says she ran away from home because she feared for her safety after she converted to Christianity from Islam claimed in court documents Monday that her family's mosque in Ohio has terrorist ties – a charge disputed by the Islamic center's leader.
Rifqa Bary, 17, said in a sworn statement her family regularly attended gatherings at the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in suburban Columbus, Ohio, and her attorney said in a memo the mosque hosted extremist speakers and supported a scholar with ties to the militant group Hamas. Bary disappeared July 19 and police used phone and computer records to track her to the Rev. Blake Lorenz, pastor of Orlando, Fla.-based Global Revolution Church. Authorities said the teen had met him through an online Facebook prayer group.
Bary has been placed in a foster family and is fighting in court to stay with them. A hearing was set for Thursday to decide whether the case should stay in Florida or return to Ohio where the teen lived with her parents and two brothers. Bary's father, Mohamed, didn't immediately return a phone call. Hany Saqr, director of the Noor Center, said he did not know the Bary family personally. But he refuted all the allegations raised by the teenager's attorney.
The center, which serves 10,000 Muslims in the community, has invited a variety of speakers, including atheists, Christians and Jews, during the three years it has been open, he said. Saqr said he thought conversion was not uncommon in the United States. "Changing the religion is something pretty natural and normal in this country," Saqr told The Associated Press Monday in an interview. "At our center we know that people accept Islam, some people accept Christianity, some people accept Judaism," Saqr said. “Based on our religion we think that there's no compulsion to religion. Everybody has the right to choose whatever religion he wants to."
Court documents filed Monday also claimed Saqr was a former leader at Omar Ibn El-Khattab Mosque in Columbus. Federal authorities charged three men who attended the Omar mosque with terrorist-related crimes between 2003 and 2007. Saqr told AP that he led prayers at the Omar mosque years ago as a student but was never appointed full-time. Bary's attorney, John Stemberger, said Saqr's connection to the Omar mosque and the Noor Center should raise questions about the teen's safety in Ohio.
Stemberger is also president of the Florida Family Policy Council, which is associated with James Dobson and Focus on the Family, according to the council's Web site.
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