Merry Christmas Rifqa!!!

Yesterday, a judge in Columbus, Ohio, ruled that Rifqa Bary may indeed receive third-party correspondence through her attorney.

According to Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs, yesterday's proceedings went 2/3 for Rifqa's rights to practice her faith without fear.

The first issue was one of the parents' CAIR attorney and the petition to have Rifqa labeled 'unruly'. The attorney wanted to amend the petition to have the date changed. The example of Rifqa's 'unruliness' cited by her parents fell on a date when she was in Florida seeking protection. So the attorney wanted to change the date. The judge decided to table this issue until January.

The first victory for Rifqa came when the judge denied the motion from Rifqa's parents to force her into mediation so as to make sure Rifqa understood exactly what islam professes. Her attorney, Kort Gatterdam, argued that after living in the household for 17 years, Rifqa already understood islam and her parents' intentions towards her. The judge agreed.

Rifqa also won the right to continue receiving Christmas cards and other words of encouragement from people around the world through her attorney. The CAIR attorney representing the parents withdrew his earlier petition to have correspondence stopped. Good thing because it appears the judge was set to deny it anyway. To send Rifqa warm wishes, the address is:

Rifqa Bary
c/o Angela Lloyd
255C Drinko Hall
55 West 12'th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210

I would like to wish Rifqa a most blessed Christmas. Also in order is a most warm wish for my blogging pals and readers to also have a great Christmas. Pamela Geller also gets my most sincere thanks for standing up for Rifqa so that she may enjoy the blessed solemnity of celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I'm going to leave everyone with what has become one of my favorite Christmas songs. May the love of God be with each of you in this most wonderful season. I pray that God continues to bless me with each of you. -- blackandgoldfan