Ergun Caner is a Baptist minister who lives in Virginia with his wife and kids. Recently, he was interviewed about Rifqa Bary, the 17 year-old girl who fled her home in Ohio to Florida out of fear for her life after she converted to Christianity.
It might interest you to know that Caner, too, was a Muslim in Ohio who became a Christian at age 16:
"...In her Aug. 30 sworn affidavit, the 17-year-old (Bary) said in June her father was pressured by leaders of the family mosque, the Noor Islamic Cultural Center in Columbus, to deal with reports they had received concerning Rifqa’s Christian conversion.“In a fit of anger that I had never seen before in my life, he picked up my lap top, waived it over my head as if to strike me with it and said, ‘If you have this Jesus in your heart, you are dead to me! You are no longer my daughter,’” Rifqa said in the affidavit.
...Brian Williams, a 21-year-old friend of Rifqa, contacted FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) on Aug. 28, noting that he filed a report with the Columbus Police Department that she had told him about her father’s threat and her mother finding Christian materials in July. Williams also told FDLE he baptized Rifqa in June. He also said he drove Rifqa from a friend’s house to the bus station when she decided to flee.
...The FDLE report noted during the Aug. 27 interview with the Bary family, two officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) were present, including CAIR attorney Romin Iqbal who characterized honor killings as “cultural and tribal, not related directly to the Islamic religious practice.”
...According to Ergun Mehmet Caner, the FDLE report is an example of “political correctness” that may endanger Rifqa’s life. “Her blood, which is almost certain to be shed if returned, is on their hands. The police and judicial branch in Florida were her last hope,” Caner said in a Sept. 15 interview with Florida Baptist Witness..."
Carner also told the Witness that a fatwa for his death was issued last year and he takes extra security precations. He said “Death for apostasy from Islam is firmly rooted in the most sacred Muslim texts,” citing the Qur’an and the Hadith, collections about Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.“There is also a consensus by all four schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, as well as Shi’ite jurists, that apostates from Islam must be put to death,” he said. Rifqa, he said, brings dishonor to her family by her Christian faith.
He was critical, too, that CAIR was present during an interview with Bary's family.
Goveror Strickland of Ohio apparently issued a statement on the 11th that Rifqa should be returned to Ohio where officials there can protect her.
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