ICC Note:
Faith-based and human rights organizations are drawing mass attention to the case of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim, a Christian mother pregnant with her second child who has been sentenced to 100 lashes and death for adultery and apostasy in Sudan. Calling on the U.S. and other members of the international community to apply pressure to the government of Sudan, ICC’s William Stark said, “we [do] not want Sudan to feel like they could go through with this case without the world knowing, without the world watching.” In its awareness efforts, ICC has started a social campaign, pushing people to tweet and post #ForMeriam.
05/19/2014 Sudan (Christian Post) – The Republic of Sudan must not be allowed to get away with sentencing a pregnant Christian woman to 100 lashes and death because of a strict Islamic law, persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern has said. It has also started a social media campaign for her freedom and is asking people to join.
“When we first heard this story, we did not want Sudan to feel like they could go through with this case without the world knowing, without the world watching. When people aren’t watching and don’t take notice, that’s when human rights abuses are going to take place,” William Stark, ICC Regional Manager for Africa, told The Christian Post in a phone interview on Friday.
The case concerns a pregnant Sudanese woman, 27-year-old Meriam Ibrahim, who has been accused by Sudan’s Public Order Criminal Code of adultery and apostasy for marrying her Christian husband, who she already has one child with. Under the Islamic regime of President Omar al-Bashir, who has stated that he wants a “purely Islamic society,” Ibrahim is still considered a Muslim because she was born as one, despite being raised as an Orthodox Christian and marrying Daniel Wani, who ICC said is an American citizen.
ICC has started a social media campaign #ForMeriam calling on people to call and write letters to Sudan’s embassies around the world demanding the pregnant mother’s release, with the hopes that the effort will also spark the attention of the U.S. Government.
“What we really want as a result from the letter-writing campaign, from the calls, the emails, is we want high-level talks to be taking place about this case. If we sit back and think about what’s going on here, Daniel Wani, the husband – he is a U.S. citizen. His children – the toddler is in prison, and the one that’s going to be born is in prison – that means we have two United States citizens, who are children inside a Sudanese prison right now,” Stark told CP.
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