UPDATE: It looks like Meriam will be released?:
Sudanese authorities are to free a woman who was sentenced to death for having abandoned the Islamic faith, a foreign ministry official says.
Meriam Ibrahim, who gave birth to a daughter in custody, will be freed in a few days, the official told the BBC.
Abdullahi Alzareg, an under-secretary at the foreign ministry, said Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting the woman.
Khartoum has been facing international condemnation over the death sentence.
(From “Meriam Ibrahim: Sudan ‘to free’ death row woman.”)
Until she’s actually free (and safe), don’t stop praying for her and letting the Sudanese government know of your concern (please see my original post below).
I am not a fan of open letters, especially between Christians. However, I don’t see how a government can be encouraged to do what is right outside of public outcry, so below is what I penned to the Sudanese embassy based on Franklin Graham’s suggestion:
If you are as outraged as I am about Meriam's death sentence, contact the Sudanese embassy in Washington at http://t.co/nGymJktNOC
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) May 17, 2014
I encourage everyone to follow the link Franklin gave…
http://www.sudanembassy.org/index.php?option=com_breezingforms&Itemid=13
…and do the same. One does not have to be a Christian to know that, as a world, we have to fight for religious liberty.
Hello,
I know that courts can sometimes hand down rulings that the government does not agree with, and I hope that is the case with the recent one sentencing Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag to lashings and death. No one should be punished for changing his or her faith, regardless of what the change was. It is even more a farce if Amnesty International is correct:
“Amnesty International said the woman, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim Ishag, was raised as an Orthodox Christian, her mother’s religion, because her father, a Muslim, was reportedly absent during her childhood” (from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27424064).
Please do the humane and honorable thing and set aside the conviction and sentence, and make legal and/or constitutional changes that mean nobody can be similarly convicted of adultery and apostasy. As a religious man I appreciate the concern for keeping people within a faith, but nobody who converts thanks to fear (direct like this or otherwise) is truly a believer. Even if this approach was effective, it is criminal and abhorant.
Please show the world this court does not reflect Sudan.
My best,
Alan
UPDATE: Alas, originally typing my letter in very small font in a web form on an iPad, I had “humane an honorable” when I meant “humane and honorable.” I changed it in the quote above so it would read the way intended.