Save Meriam

May 30

Save Meriam By Peter Roff

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim is currently under a sentence of death in Sudan. Her crime? According to a Sudanese court, Ibrahim renounced her Islamic faith in favor of Christianity, and so, in accordance with Islamic law, she must be put to death.

According to CNN, Ibrahim says that while her father was a Sudanese Muslim, he left when she was six. Her mother, an Ethiopian Orthodox, opted to raise her as a Christian. Sudanese Parliament speaker Fatih Izz Al-Deen, the network said in its reporting, says the claim that Ibrahim was raised as non-Muslim is untrue, that she was raised in an Islamic environment, and that her brother, who is Muslim, filed the complaint against her.

Ibrahim was given until May 15 to renounce her faith but refused and, now that her baby has been born, is awaiting the result of an appeal to the nation’s highest court. If it affirms the lower court ruling, which is likely, she could be put to death immediately or after the child is weaned.

Either way the outcome is morally unacceptable, all the more so because her husband, Daniel Wani, is an American citizen. Yet the Obama administration again appears powerless to help.

Likewise, there’s apparently been no high-profile private diplomacy. No cabinet secretaries, current or former, have been jumping on planes and no members of Congress, Republican or Democrat, have flown over to demand they be allowed to meet with her and check on her condition. It’s almost as though she doesn’t exist.

This situation has been allowed to go on for far too long. One would think there would be daily demonstrations outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., and at the New York consulate where the United Nations’ delegation is housed. So far, though, nothing.

Nor do the television networks have teams on the ground in Khartoum covering the unfolding drama of this very brave woman who refuses to renounce her faith, who puts her trust in God and is depending on Him to deliver her from her captivity much as He did Daniel in the lions’ den and Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace.

Her faith is a testament to a kind of courage sorely lacking among those American women who purport to speak for women all over the world. They have not the courage of their convictions, at least as far as Meriam Ibrahim is concerned, and they should be ashamed. By week’s end, let’s hope her name is as commonplace…and that President Barack Obama will come to her defense, on behalf of the United States and the rest of the world.


Peter Roff is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report. Formerly a senior political writer for United Press International, he's now affiliated with several public policy organizations including Let Freedom Ring, and Frontiers of Freedom. His writing has appeared in National Review, Fox News' opinion section, The Daily Caller, Politico and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter @PeterRoff.



Peter Roff is quite right—the Western World, America in particular—should be speaking against the heinous injustice that is being done to Meriam Ibrahim and her family, but the muslim world should be speaking out as well.

The Koran states: “Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clear from error. Whoever rejects false worship and believes in God has grasped the most trustworthy handhold that never breaks. And God hears and knows all things.” (Quran 2:256)

Further it says, “If it had been your Lord’s will, all of the people on Earth would have believed. Would you then compel the people so to have them believe?” (Quran 10:99).

Their own holy word makes it quite clear that faith is a matter of the conscience of the individual. Though it may be preferable in the tenet of this religion that one accept its tenets, it is quite clear that the choice to do so must be left with the one who stands before God.

The judge that has convicted and sentenced Meriam Ibrahim seems to be unaware of the doctrine of his own religion.

May we who call ourselves Christian turn to the One who “inhabits eternity” Isaiah 57:15 where we can “find mercy and grace,” Hebrews 4:16. May we pray day and night in the behalf of our sister, whose only “crime” is to love her Savior Jesus Christ and to refuse to deny Him.