Lawyer Says Convert's Supporters Defamed Him

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A former lawyer for the Muslim parents of a girl who ran away from home after converting to Christianity says in a $10 million federal lawsuit that a blogger and a former attorney for the girl defamed him by alleging he has contacts with terrorists and criminals.

Attorney Omar Tarazi is seeking $10 million in a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Columbus to compensate him for damage he alleges was done to his reputation.

Tarazi represented the parents of Rifqa Bary, a Christian teenager who fled to Florida, saying she feared harm from her Muslim mother and father. Bary was returned to Ohio last year and placed in foster care while a juvenile court judge tried unsuccessfully to reunite Bary and her parents.

Bary left the custody of Franklin County children services when she turned 18 last month. Police investigations in Ohio and Florida found no evidence she would be harmed.

Bary, who emigrated from Sri Lanka with her family when she was 5, was an illegal immigrant until last week when she gained her green card, her attorney, Kort Gatterdam, said Tuesday.

In his lawsuit, Tarazi said blogger Pamela Oshry wrongly linked him to Hamas, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. government. He said she also falsely said he was appointed to represent Bary's parents by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR is a Washington-based Islamic advocacy group. On her website, Atlas Shrugs, Oshry, who also goes by Pamela Geller, repeatedly refers to Tarazi as a lawyer appointed or selected by CAIR. Her website also includes links to sites alleging CAIR is a terrorist front.

Geller also leads an organization called Stop Islamization of America that placed ads on New York City buses last spring offering information to those wishing to leave Islam. And she is organizing a protest on Sept. 11 in New York against a proposed Islamic cultural center to be built near ground zero.

Tarazi says Orlando, Fla., attorney John Stemberger, who represented Bary in Florida, defamed him by calling him unqualified and also alleging in a December TV interview he has terrorist ties.

Stemberger said Tuesday he was still reviewing the lawsuit but was comfortable with comments he has made about Tarazi. Oshry, who also goes by Pamela Geller, said by e-mail she had not seen the lawsuit.

Tarazi said he has never worked for CAIR or been appointed by the group to represent Bary's parents, which he said he did pro bono except for some minor expenses his clients paid for.

Tarazi said his mother volunteered as a secretary with CAIR-Ohio in Columbus but left that position three years ago.

Tarazi says the comments about him have damaged his reputation permanently, in part because Internet searches of his name turn up "accusations of perjury, conflict of interest, being unqualified as an attorney."

Individuals are supporting Bary financially as she makes decisions about her future, said Gatterdam, who would not identify the people or say where Bary was or what she was doing.

"It's been a very traumatic last nine or 10 months," Gatterdam said. "Now she's sitting back and planning her future."

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