After languishing in the Omdurman Federal Women’s prison in Khartoum, Sudan since early February, Dr. Meriam Ibrahim Ishag was finally released earlier today. A 27 year-old Christian mother of two and a physician, Meriam was convicted of apostasy and adultery on Mother’s Day. She was given three days to reconsider her faith. When she refused to renounce her belief in Jesus Christ, she was sentenced to 100 lashes followed by hanging.
Meriam was charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, although her Muslim father deserted the family when Meriam was only six. Raised by her Ethiopian Christian mother in the Christian faith, Meriam claims she was never a Muslim.
Three-and-half years ago, Meriam was married to Daniel Wani, a U.S. naturalized citizen and resident of New Hampshire. Over 500 people attended their legal marriage.
Last summer the couple appealed to the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum requesting a visa for Meriam. Per international law, their young son, Martin (then eight-months old), is a U.S. citizen. They were denied an audience on three separate occasions and after the third time Meriam was ‘coincidentally’ arrested. She was pregnant with their second child at the time she was arrested.
In addition to the original charge of apostasy, she was also charged with adultery because Shari’a law does not recognize any Muslim woman’s marriage to a Christian man (although Muslim men can and do marry Christian women). For the ‘crime’ of having sexual relations with her legal husband, Meriam was to have suffered 100 lashes with a whip.
Two weeks after her sentencing, she gave birth to her daughter while shackled to the floor in the clinic prison. Her daughter is also automatically a U.S. Citizen. This brave woman who refused to renounce her faith has endured terrible imprisonment and torture in a filthy hellhole, all at the hands of radical Muslim extremists. This is the ‘beauty’ of Shari’a law.
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Were it not for international outcry demanding her immediate release, she most undoubtedly would have been repeatedly tortured and ultimately hanged. As is customary in Shari’a law, children are imprisoned with their mothers. Thus, her 20 month-old-son, Martin, was caged with her during the entire affair.
The immediate question now is how quickly can they exit the Sudan, because the small, young family is most assuredly not safe among the radical population. Since the U.S. State Department has been virtually silent on this matter, the UK has offered immediate asylum to the entire family.
This is one situation where relentless, public international outrage saved three innocent lives and helped reunite an innocent U.S. Christian family. For all the people of the world who raised their voices in Meriam’s defense, may God Bless you!!
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