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Sudanese woman condemned to death for leaving Islam walks free from prison

Jun 23, 2014 4:37 pm By Robert Spencer

MeriamIbrahim“Tony Blair called the case a ‘brutal and sickening distortion of faith.” In reality, the Sudanese authorities were acting in accord with classic principles of Islamic law. Muhammad commanded: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57). Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most renowned and prominent Muslim cleric in the world, has stated: “The Muslim jurists are unanimous that apostates must be punished, yet they differ as to determining the kind of punishment to be inflicted upon them. The majority of them, including the four main schools of jurisprudence (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, and Hanbali) as well as the other four schools of jurisprudence (the four Shiite schools of Az-Zaidiyyah, Al-Ithna-‘ashriyyah, Al-Ja’fariyyah, and Az-Zaheriyyah) agree that apostates must be executed.” There is only disagreement over whether the law applies only to men, or to women also – some authorities hold that apostate women should not be killed, but only imprisoned in their houses until death.

Islam is patrilinear, so Meriam Ibrahim was considered a Muslim since her father was a Muslim. Her profession of Christianity made her an apostate.

Until we face these realities squarely, there will be many more such cases.

An update on this story. “Sudanese woman Meriam Ibrahim walks free from prison,” by Harriet Alexander, the Telegraph, June 23, 2014:

The Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy while pregnant has finally been freed, and was on Monday night reunited with her family after spending six months behind bars.

Meriam Ibrahim, 27, walked out of prison in Khartoum on Monday afternoon and was taken to an undisclosed safe house for her own protection. In Sudan, where Sharia law is implemented, leaving the Islamic faith is a crime punishable by death – and earlier this month her own brother called for the sentence to be carried out.

“Her family had been threatened before and we are worried that someone might try to harm her,” said Mohaned Mostafa, one of her team of lawyers.

Her release was announced on Monday by Sudanese state media, which said that the Supreme Court had overturned the verdict and she was to be freed.

As soon as he heard the news on the radio, Elshareef Ali Mohammed, another of her lawyers, rushed to the Omdurman women’s prison to see whether the news was true.

Hopes of her release had been raised – then dashed – before: a similar claim, on May 31, was quickly proved false.

“We are going to the prison now to find out more details,” said Mr Elshareef. He told The Telegraph: “We heard it just now on the state radio. We really hope it’s true.”

This time, it was, Mr Mostafa confirmed later.

Ms Ibrahim’s case was first highlighted by The Telegraph when she was sentenced on May 15. Having detained her since December, the court in Khartoum ruled that she should receive 100 lashes for “adultery” – because it did not recognise her Christian marriage to American citizen Daniel Wani – and then to hang for refusing to “return” to Islam. But Ms Ibrahim, who was born in eastern Sudan, close to the Ethiopian border, told the court that she had been raised a Christian, by her Ethiopian Christian mother. Her Muslim father left the family when she was six.

Less than a fortnight after she was sentenced, she gave birth to a daughter, Maya – with the authorities keeping her legs shackled for the birth.

Her toddler son, Martin, almost two, was also in prison with his mother.

The judge ruled that Ms Ibrahim would not be executed for two years after the birth of the baby – but her husband and legal team were desperately hoping that the verdict would be overruled before then. Yet he told The Telegraph she was refusing to recant her Christian beliefs – despite the death sentence.

“She is not going to renounce her religion, though,” he said. “She told me that.”

He said that they told her that the world was talking about her plight.

“We let her know,” he said. “She really appreciates that and is thanking people. She wants people to support her and pressure the government to reverse the sentence.”

The case caused outrage around the world. David Cameron, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton all called for her release, and a petition to secure her freedom gathered over 700,000 signatures. Tony Blair called the case a “brutal and sickening distortion of faith”….

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Filed Under: Apostasy, Muslim persecution of Christians, Sudan Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. Champ says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    This is such *wonderful* news …Finally!

  2. Champ says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 4:51 pm

    Less than a fortnight after she was sentenced, she gave birth to a daughter, Maya – with the authorities keeping her legs shackled for the birth.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    How cruel and heartless. Giving birth is hard enough, and now this …

  3. BlueRaven says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 4:59 pm

    I hope she can survive now she is free. Though I wouldn’t trust any member of her family for a nano sec. The cult Islam is so strange it turns a normal human being into a blood haunting monster.

    I like to give credit to the authorites who released her. Good job. Locking her up was a terrible thing to do to an innocent person.

  4. Mirren10 says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 4:59 pm

    As Champ says, this is truly **wonderful** news, and I am so happy ! Although, of course, my happiness is nothing to what Meriam and her husband must be feeling !

    It goes to show what a load of international pressure and condemnation of the evil sharia can do. Will Western governments take note ? Standing up to evil oft times makes evil cave in !

    I *hate* to introduce a note of depression here, but one wonders how many **other** cases there are, which haven’t received the amount of publicity this one has.

    What of Asia Bibi ? Why has there not been a similar outcry, with **her** case ? Perish the thought it might be because pakiland is **supposed** to be an ally of the West …

    • Nelson Abdullah says

      Jun 23, 2014 at 5:24 pm

      Mirren10, if I may add to your wonderful post, there are already too many Christian Martyrs in Heaven now, all at the bloody hands of Muslims, so I don’t think anyone would mind if I offer congratulations to this one who was just saved. Heaven can wait.

      • Kepha says

        Jun 23, 2014 at 8:14 pm

        I get your point that Islam is dangerous and downright murderous.

        Also, I don’t think people should go out and court martyrdom. The Bible is a life-affirming and life-loving book; so much so that Jesus Christ broke the bonds of death three days after he was killed on the cross. And I note that the Church Father Polycarp was hunted down and arrested before he was martyred rather than taking the “come and get me” attitude.

        Yet God has His holy and good purposes in the numbers of martyrs in Heaven. God has gathered their souls to Himself that there may be more professing faith in Jesus Christ to the praise of God’s glorious grace here on earth. Had there been no Martyr Stephen, there would be no Apostle Paul, and perhaps a few others who came to faith. Tertullian, the North African and one of the founders of Latin-speaking Christianity, rightly said that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.

        This being said, I still pray that Meriam Yahya Ibrahim and her children soon emerge from US Customs to reunite with her family’s husband and father. I say America should open its arms to such people. I pray that there will be more and more people persuaded to believe in Jesus Christ through the preaching of the Word and the subtle work of the Holy Spirit rather than through the upheavals I read about in Bible prophecy. I pray God’s vengeance for the blood of the martyrs will be the offspring of the persecutors numbered among the saved rather than among the damned. But I think God knows exactly what He is doing when He calls some of His children to martyrdom.

    • Champ ♥ says

      Jun 23, 2014 at 7:12 pm

      Hi, Mirren10 …yes, this wonderful news is such a blessing to all of us who have followed this story and hoping for her eventual freedom! And I will continue to pray for Meriam and her families safety.

      • Mirren10 says

        Jun 24, 2014 at 1:02 pm

        Hi, Champ, hope you and yours are doing well.

        But now we have the sickening news Meriam and her husband have been **re-arrested**.

        As dda says, these bastards are playing a vicious cat and mouse game. May they rot in hell.

        Off to write some more letters.

  5. Nelson Abdullah says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    I hope and pray they safely remove her from that country and bring her to America. There are too many Muslims bent on carrying out their own form of justice, irregardless of what the Supreme Court ruled.

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 23, 2014 at 7:52 pm

      I, for one, would welcome Meriam and her family here!

      • Kepha says

        Jun 23, 2014 at 8:15 pm

        gravenimage, I echo your sentiments.

      • PRCS says

        Jun 23, 2014 at 11:59 pm

        As her husband is a U.S. citizen, he can–and should–petition for her entry here; immediately. And if our State Department doesn’t expedite the request, shame on them.

        • Angemon says

          Jun 24, 2014 at 5:19 am

          It would be bad for them it they didn’t. Sudan isn’t the only country who caves in to media pressure. In any case, i doubt she would be refused entry since it would attract attention to the reason why she doesn’t feel safe in her own country with her own family – the reason being islamic orthodoxy.

    • Charli Main says

      Jun 24, 2014 at 7:46 am

      I hope that this lady does get sanctuary in the USA. She certainly has little chance of getting it in the UK. She would have to go to the back of the queue, behind all those “poor Muslim refugees” and “poor Muslim asylum seekers” who are desperately needed in Britain because of ” the enormous contribution” Muslims make to British society.

  6. pdxnag says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    So if Tony Blair were to acknowledge that the penalty of death here was in full accord with mainstream Islam he would then have to say that Islam itself was a “brutal and sickening [] faith[.]” Just cut out the distortion, and the mass immigration of the faithful.

  7. Rocky Lore says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    Once again, Ku Klux Kair silent on a hate crime hoax they defended.

  8. Guest says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 6:42 pm

    This is great for her, but it’s really nothing in larger terms. The Supreme Court ruling was probably just a reaction to international outrage, and thousands of others are still suffering. There is no freedom in Sudan. The only ‘larger picture’ advantage here is that the Telegraph is prepared to write things like “In Sudan, where Sharia law is implemented, leaving the Islamic faith is a crime punishable by death”. About time the west knew about this!

    • Kepha says

      Jun 23, 2014 at 8:18 pm

      Good for international outrage. Maybe this will be the crack that breaks the dam on media silence regarding the persecution of Christians, which our government seeks to aid and abet. If not this one, maybe the case of some other Sudanese or some apostate in Arabia. Remember Solzhenitsyn’s _The Oak and the Calf_!

  9. Angemon says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 6:43 pm

    “The Sudanese woman sentenced to death for apostasy while pregnant has finally been freed, and was on Monday night reunited with her family after spending six months behind bars.”

    Great news, but i’m not sure if she wouldn’t be safer behind bars. After all:

    “earlier this month her own brother called for the sentence to be carried out.”

    What’s preventing her brother, or any random muslim sharing his opinion, from carrying out the sentence by their own hands? At least in jail she had the attention of the international community, so the police officers would (probably) face some sort of punishment if she were killed in their watch.

    • AnneM says

      Jun 23, 2014 at 6:49 pm

      First, praise be to God that she will be freed. Second, it is time for her to come to America so she can practice her Christian faith in peace.

      • Kepha says

        Jun 23, 2014 at 11:14 pm

        She’ll probably be cursed as a “homophobe” and “slave to patriarchy” and “enabler of imperialism” by our EmCeePeeCee crowd. **Sigh!** 🙁

    • dumbledoresarmy says

      Jun 27, 2014 at 8:01 am

      Coming in late here, but

      re the family.

      There is, I understand, some question as to whether those *claiming* to be her “brothers” actually *are* her brothers.

      Do please click on the link and read the rest of the article (and the UK “Telegraph” will be pleased, because more clicks = more views = more advertising revenue, and therefore they will keep on printing stories such as this, if stories like this garner the most clicks).

      “Ms Ibrahim was the head of a series of successful small businesses in Sudan – and some even suggested that **she could have been denounced to the authorities as part of a plot to gain control over her affairs** {my emphasis – dda}.

      {How often have we seen Muslims pulling that sort of thing – mostly on hapless Infidels, both Hindu and Christian, but also, every now and again, on other Muslims – in Pakistan? – dda}

      “Father Mussa Timothy Kacho, episcopal vicar for Khartoum, said the case was brought about in the autumn by “a group of men who claim to be Meriam’s relatives”.

      “In fact, she had never seen those men before, the statement added.”

  10. shrugger says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 7:19 pm

    YAY!!

    Can’t wait to hear how Glorious Leader, in double ultra secret talks got her freed.

  11. gravenimage says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    Sudanese woman condemned to death for leaving Islam walks free from prison
    …………………………………

    *So glad* to hear this confirmed!

    More:

    “Her family had been threatened before and we are worried that someone might try to harm her,” said Mohaned Mostafa, one of her team of lawyers.
    …………………………………

    I’m worried about Meriam and her family, as well—there have been many cases in places like Pakistan where the victim is finally freed, only to be slaughtered by some pious member of the Ummah soon afterwards.

    I hope she and her entire family can get out of Sudan—perhaps to the United States, since her husband is an American citizen.

    I worry about her legal team, as well—bless them for all the work they have done, under crushingly oppressive and threatening circumstances.

    More:

    He said that they told her that the world was talking about her plight.

    “We let her know,” he said. “She really appreciates that and is thanking people. She wants people to support her and pressure the government to reverse the sentence.”
    …………………………………

    And this *is* probably what happened. This shows that even Islamic hell holes like Sudan can—at times at least—be influenced by pressure from the civilized world.

  12. Kepha says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 8:21 pm

    @gravenimage:

    As I’ve said before, if Ms. Ibrahim’s husband hasn’t done so already, would someone get him the forms and walk him through petitioning for an alien spouse? It takes only as long as necessary for ICE to process the papers, for there is no numerical limitation on spouses and minor children of US citizens.

  13. jewcat says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    This frail woman has more balls than Obama, Kerry, Cameron, Millibrand, and all those world leaders combined — she said ‘no’ to Islam, despite the lethal consequences for doing this. She is a hero and an example to us all. God bless her.

  14. Milton V says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 9:12 pm

    Secularism receives another vote of support from humanity.
    Man-made religions breed cruel, absurd laws.
    Intelligently designed laws, free of religious pollution, are the sensible option.

    • JIMJFOX says

      Jun 24, 2014 at 4:27 am

      Careful, Milton- Christian fundamentalists might hear!

    • Mirren10 says

      Jun 24, 2014 at 1:08 pm

      ”Man-made religions breed cruel, absurd laws.”

      As cruel and absurd as the **Nuremburg Laws** ??

      **islam** is the only religion in the world today, that has the cruel, vicious, and ‘absurd’ sharia. And **enforces** it.

  15. PJG says

    Jun 23, 2014 at 9:43 pm

    Do people here really think that it was international pressure which led to her release? That a government which has killed millions – and is still relentlessly killing its citizens – would care about world outrage over this one woman?
    I doubt it. Technically, there is freedom of religion in the Sudan.

    Basic Human Right in the Two International Covenants recognised by Article 27(3) of the National Interim Constitution of the Republic of the Sudan (2005):
    No 31 “Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”.

    I’d say it was a case of dedicated lawyers doing their stuff. Perhaps they, like many other Sudanese, dream of secularism and are doing what they can to keep sharia at bay.

    Many, many Sudanese will be happy about this verdict. They seem to think islam is inherently peaceful, and we can’t accuse them of trying to fool us because they say the same thing when they are talking to each other, far away from us. Yes, I know, one wonders…

  16. Bwa Ha says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 12:18 am

    I wouldn’t trust these mooslums as far as I could throw them.

  17. Jay Boo says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 12:44 am

    The self-serving religion of Islam blinked

    Meanwhile Al Jazeera and its stooges are trying to get the world outraged and on its side against the government of Egypt for sending Al Jazeera’s Muslim Brotherhood propaganda ministers who posed as journalists to jail.

    The filth of Islam is possibly getting harder to hide.

    • Jay Boo says

      Jun 24, 2014 at 8:39 am

      Off Topic

      TROLL ALERT
      Smart Guy has other agendas

      http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/06/isis-forces-iraqi-christians-to-pay-jizya-tells-them-to-convert-to-islam-or-face-the-sword/comment-page-1#comment-1080074

  18. Lawrence says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 1:50 am

    Sadly this woman is not safe yet. Not while she is in the Sudan. Surely she will be more safe in the West.

    What to watch for 1) Riots in the Sudan; 2) revenge attacks in the Sudan 3: Our own treasonous administration creating delays and obstacles about the fact that she is not an American citizen nor will they claim is her baby.

    Mark my words

  19. Lawrence says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 1:55 am

    I failed to add on my post “Our Muslim President will find a way to express his disapproval.”

  20. Salah says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 2:28 am

    “Tony Blair called the case a ‘brutal and sickening distortion of faith.”

    Distortion? really?

    Tunisia: A young Muslim leaves Islam and converts to Christianity.
    Guess what happened to him!!!
    (graphic)
    http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2012/07/tunisia-beheading-decapite-en-tunisie.html

  21. Lawrence Kelley III says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 4:02 am

    Having prayed for this poor fellow Christians plight, I am so very happy that she has been released. I was truly horrified by this barbaric act by the Sudanese Muslims. The extent of the cruelty makes me recall the verse in Proverbs 12:10 that says: “…..The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” She is to be highly praised for maintaining her faith in God through this ordeal.

    The one good thing about this whole incident is that the entire world has seen just how evil, wicked and cruel the Muslims are without the slightest bit of shame. The things they have done historically and do even today in Iraq and other Muslims countries is revolting. I have no problem understanding why God has prepared an eternal Hell of unending torment for all such evil people like Muslims. Jesus saves indeed ….from eternal Hell-fire.

    Anyone who doubts there is really a Hell that exists at this very moment should search for the Near Death Experiences (NDEs) on YouTube of Christian whom God has allowed to see in the spirit. Anyone who doubts about Hell being a real place should watch a few of these YT videos. What is amazing and gives credence to these testimonies is how all of then are consistent in their depiction of the awful suffering and torment of those who are in Hell right this moment — and forever. When Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, he must have told many about what he saw when he came back to life — and how the rich man cried out to Abraham to send Lazarus over the chasm to give him a drop of water on his unquenchable tormenting thirst.

  22. Isabella says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 8:49 am

    The Sudanese Christian woman has been rearrested at the airport
    http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/24/sudanese-christian-woman-rearrested/

    The euphoria was short, are you really surprised?

  23. gravenimage says

    Jun 24, 2014 at 4:50 pm

    The sadistic bastards rearrested Meriam Ibrahim and her family at the airport:

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/06/sudanese-christian-just-released-from-prison-rearrested-with-husband-at-airport

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