As of the posting of this blog, all
the media is talking about is the Obama Administration’s deal to free an U.S.
armed forces service member in exchange with five Taliban prisoners. Putting aside the assortment of controversy
surround it, I’d like to know what this administration is doing to free the
family of an American citizen imprisoned because they are Christians.
As of this writing, Meriam Ibrahim,
who is 27 – raised as a Christian in Sudan by her Ethiopian Orthodox mother and
reportedly abandoned at age 6 by her Muslim father – sits shackled in a cell of
the Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison in Sudan … along with her two children (Martin
and Maya). This is the family of an
American citizen … being persecuted for their Christian faith by a foreign government.
Meriam’s husband is Daniel Wani, a
naturalized U.S. citizen, who, according to the Manchester Union Leader, moved from Sudan to New Hampshire in 1998.
He was naturalized in 2005. In December 2011, according to the Daily Mail, he and Meriam were married
in a Christian church in Sudan. Their
son, Martin, was born 20-months ago in Sudan. Their daughter, Maya, was just born in the
Omdurman prison.
So how did they end up in a Sudanese
prison? What’s the crime? In Sudan, the children of Muslim fathers are
not allowed to be Christians … no matter what their hearts, minds and souls
tell them. Freedom of conscience does
not exist.
On May 15, a Sudanese court
convicted Meriam of “apostasy” because she refused to renounce her Christianity
and become a Muslim. For this ‘crime’
the Sudanese court sentenced her to death. The court also convicted Meriam of “adultery”
– for her relationship with her own husband – because Sudan refuses to
recognize the marriage of a Christian man to a Muslim woman. For this ‘crime,’ the court sentenced her to
be flogged before she is hanged.
Martin is in jail with his mother
because Sudan considers him to be a Muslim, too, and will not release him to
his Christian father. Sudan will allow
Meriam to nurse the infant Maya in prison for 2-years … then they will hang
Meriam.
Meriam
has demonstrated a saintly courage. Husband,
Daniel, recounted for the Daily Mail
a conversation she had with him when he was allowed to visit her in prison. “If they want to execute me then they should
go ahead and do it because I’m not going to change my faith,” she told her
husband. “I refuse to change. I am not giving up Christianity just so that I
can live. I know I could stay alive by
becoming a Muslim and I would be able to look after our family, but I need to
be true to myself.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron
has personally spoken out in defense of this wife of a U.S. citizen. “The way she is being treated is barbaric and
has no place in today’s world,” Cameroon told the Times of London. “Religious
freedom is an absolute, fundamental human right. I urge the government of Sudan to overturn the
sentence and immediately provide appropriate support and medical care for her
and her children. The U.K. will continue
to press the government of Sudan to act.”
So what has President Barack Obama
personally said about the plight of this U.S. citizen’s family? So far, nothing. What has Secretary of State John Kerry
personally said? So far, nothing. Spokespersons at the White House and the State
Department have made statements, but not the president or the secretary of
state.
Daniel Wani told the Daily Mail that the U.S. Embassy in
Khartoum has not been helpful to him. “They
said, ‘Well your wife isn’t American, so we can’t help,’” Wani said. “I felt disgusted. My home is in America, and still they won’t
help. It’s getting uglier, and it’s not
going in the right direction.” “I have
provided wedding documents and the baby’s birth certificate, but this is
clearly not enough,” he said. “It’s very
upsetting that they don’t believe me.” Wani
said the embassy wanted DNA evidence to prove his son was his son. “They want me to take a DNA sample in
Khartoum, then send it to the U.S. for testing,” Wani told the Mail. “It’s as if they don’t believe a word I say.” Citing the Privacy
Act, State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki initially declined to concede
that Daniel Wani was a U.S. citizen. Then Wani signed a Privacy Act waiver and Psaki stated that he was a citizen, but
would not concede that his children Martin and Maya are also citizens. “We don’t have all the information we would
need in this case,” she said.
The administration appears to be
playing hardball with Daniel Wani when it comes to establishing the citizenship
of his children; but softball with the Sudanese government when it comes to
protecting those children and their mother.
Perhaps the administration has been
working intensely behind the scenes to free this family and is wary of saying
something publicly that would hurt rather than help the cause. That would be understandable. Or perhaps working out the deal to free five
Taliban prisoners was more important to this administration than working to
free the family of an American citizen imprisoned because they are Christians. You be the judge!
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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