In the aftermath, the Lorenzes have lost their jobs. (Their church board took issue with the Lorenzes breaking the law by harboring a runaway child without notifying the proper authorities.) Her parents have lost their privacy and a great deal of their reputation. (Law enforcement investigations found the parents posed no threat to their daughter’s safety, but Bary’s anti-Islam fans still trumpet that the girl’s life was in danger.) And Bary will likely end up with a new identity as a “persecuted Christian” who escaped the clutches of Islam — a newly minted spokeswoman for the Religious Fear-mongering Right.

You wait. There’s bound to be a book or movie deal waiting in the wings. And the obligatory appearance on Oprah.

People held signs that said “Free Rifqa” and “Sharia sucks. Free Rifqa Bari. (sic)” There was a large poster that showed violence done to Muslims who have converted to Christianity, as Bary said she did four years ago. People prayed, and people spoke, and people made a controversy where none exists.

Hence, a manufactroversy.

How many people? Well, one of the organizers demagogues, Pamela Geller, says “hundreds.” The Columbus Dispatch says “about 120.”

Bary ran away from her Columbus home back in September. She and her family are Muslims from Sri Lanka, and according to newspaper accounts, her parents were perfectly OK with her reading the Bible, hanging out with Christian kids, and being a cheerleader.

But her many “supporters” — most of whom are fervent Christians — fervently believe her family, or the middle-of-the-road mosque to which they belong, will put the girl to death if she is sent back to her family. Law enforcement officers discount that likelihood, but since when do True Believers™ believe John Law?

The rally “crowd” was also upset that a family court judge has closed to the public the hearings being held to decide whether Bary is an unruly teenager, as her parents allege, and whether she can leave foster care. They also have their underwear in knots about court orders restricting the girl’s access to the Internet, email and her cellphone.

To them, it’s all some kind of sinister Islamic plot to subvert the American justice system and wage war on Christians, right there in the newly formed Islamic Republic of Ohio. If they didn’t have their heads on backwards, they might realize that closing custody issue hearings and limiting a minors’ access to possibly harmful influences are pretty routine stuff, nothing to see here, folks, just move along.

Bary took off from her home after meeting some Christians on Facebook and spending time with a pastor in Columbus. Her Christian friends helped her take a bus to Orlando, Florida, where she stayed with a rather dodgy sounding Baptist minister and his wife for nearly two weeks before anyone notified Florida’s child welfare office of her whereabouts.

Meanwhile, her worried parents had no idea where she was. But, hey, it’s OK to keep them in the dark, because they’re “evil, murdering Muslims.”

You think I exaggerate? The Dispatch says some folks at the rally were wearing T-shirts that said “Islam is of the devil.” Such warm hearted folks.

Bary, 17, fled her Columbus home last summer with the assistance of conservative Christians, who bought her a bus ticket to Orlando, where she lived for two weeks with Christian crusaders Blake and Beverly Lorenz. Several days later, the Lorenzes reported Bary’s arrival to Florida’s child protection services.

The immigrant girl from Sri Lanka has become a poster child for those Christians who believe the world is heading for a showdown between the forces of good (Christians) and the forces of evil (Muslims). Feeding on apparently false accusations that Bary’s parents will kill her for leaving her faith, rabid Christians have flocked to her cause like bears to honey.

An Ohio judge has wisely restricted the impressionable girl’s access to the Internet and her cell phone, which has led one anti-Islam nutjob to accuse the Ohio judge of enforcing Muslim sharia law.

Last month, while under foster care in Florida, Bary appeared on a telephone conference call prayer meeting, during which she manically prayed to Jesus, then abruptly stopped, leaving her handlers fellow Christians at a temporary loss for words. The conference call was scheduled to counter the sinister and cosmic influence of the Muslim Prayer Rally in Washington, D.C.

Florida’s child protection service officials have still not explained how Bary was allowed to participate in the event. The Ohio judge seems to have learned something from Florida’s cluelessness.

Bary has fallen in with an extremist set of believers, who even mainstream Christians distrust, according to the website Loonwatch. These folks variously believe that Christians — led by a “Joel’s Army” of young evangelical “soldiers” — are divinely appointed to rule the world, and that Christians must first deal with the Muslim problem. According to these kooks, Islam is a product of the devil, and Bary must be protected from the evil clutches of her parents, who by all rational accounts are loving, Americanized — and very puzzled — parents.

There are a lot of disturbing aspects to the case of Rifqa Bary, but Islam is not one of them. Her fragile understanding of her faiths (old and new), her manipulation at the hands of religious crusaders, and the unwarranted intrusion of Internet demagogues like Pam Geller are a much bigger problem.

JISHOU, HUNAN — Rifqa Bary, the Muslim teen who converted to Christianity and fled to Florida (with help), will be sent back to temporary foster care in her home state of Ohio, a Florida family court judge ruled Tuesday.

Bary, 17, ran away from home at age 16, saying she feared her parents would kill her for converting. Christian ministers helped her take a Greyhound to Orlando, Florida, where she lived with a pastor and his wife for two weeks before they finally reported the situation to local authorities and the girls’ parents.

Law enforcement officers investigating the Bary family found no indication Bary’s life was in danger, and the Florida judge assigned to her case ruled that Ohio’s child protection office is more suitable to decide her case.

Once she arrives in Ohio, Bary will be placed in temporary custody with the Franklin County Children’s Service department.

Bary made headlines recently after she participated in a conference call Christian prayer session preceding the Muslim Prayer Rally in Washington, D.C., last month. Her appearance sparked questions about Bary’s foster parents, who were supposedly keeping her separate from the Christians who had helped her flee her home.

Her story has become the latest cause celebre among fundamentalist Christians, who have adopted her as a kind of “poster child” for anti-Islam rhetoric and quasi-martyrdom. Meanwhile, her parents, who by all appearances are moderate Muslims from Sri Lanka, say they mean the girl no harm and in fact were perfectly comfortable with her Christian faith months before her departure.

It’s shameful that the same people who claim the family is next to importance to God seem so willing to tear apart a family by preying on a young girl’s confusion.