Grant Political Asylum to Mom Sentenced to Death

Monday, May 26, 2014

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

sudan-mapWASHINGTON D.C. (Worthy News)-- Republican Senators Roy Blunt and Kelly Ayotte have drafted a letter to Secretary John Kerry calling on him and the U.S. Department of State to grant political asylum to a pregnant Christian mother who has been sentenced to death for her faith by a Sudanese court, according to International Christian Concern.

In their letter, the senators called attention to the court's ruling that sentenced Meriam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag to death by hanging.

"This week, a court in Khartoum sentenced Meriam, 27, to be flogged for adultery for marrying a Christian man and to be hanged to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. According to news reports, Meriam is currently eight months pregnant with her second child and has been imprisoned along with her 20-month old toddler since February. Meriam is married to Daniel Wani, an American citizen who has ties to New Hampshire. Meriam was reportedly born to a Sudanese Muslim father and was raised as a Christian by her Ethiopian Orthodox mother."

However, Sudanese Parliament Speaker Fatih Izz Al-Deen said claims that Ibrahim was raised a non-Muslim were false because she was brought up in an Islamic environment, according to a complaint lodged by her Muslim brother

Nonetheless, a bipartisan group of four senators recently introduced a resolution condemning Ibrahim's sentence after a judge in Khartoum sentenced her to death by hanging after she gives birth and nurses her child for two years. The proposed resolution urged the Sudanese government to respect religious freedom in order to retain Sudan's relations with the United States.