The Christian mother once sentenced to death for her faith has gained asylum in the United States with her family, reports the Morning Star News. The U.S. granted asylum to Meriam Ibrahim last week, after an unexpected diplomatic turn that led to her final release from Sudanese Muslim authorities.
She and her infant daughter Maya, born in prison with her May 27, and nearly 2-year-old son Martin, who had remained with his mother since her imprisonment without trial in February, were reunited as a family with her husband.
Muslims claiming to be relatives had accused her of leaving Islam. Ibrahim says that she was raised a Christian by her Ethiopian Orthodox mother, and that her Muslim father disappeared when she was 6 years old. International media, Western embassies and human rights groups urged her release when Ibrahim's death sentence was confirmed after she refused to recant her faith on May 15. She was released from prison in Sudan on June 23, less than two months after false charges of apostasy against her set off a firestorm of international protests, only to be detained at the Khartoum airport less than 24 hours later. More than 40 agents from the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested her, and Ibrahim was charged with "forging" travel documents, punishable by nearly seven years in prison. But after U.S. diplomatic intervention she was unexpectedly released.
Family Restoration is a central goal of immigration law, and religious persecution is a veritable rationale to sustain an asylum claim. This is one grateful family! "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..." Romans 1:16
She and her infant daughter Maya, born in prison with her May 27, and nearly 2-year-old son Martin, who had remained with his mother since her imprisonment without trial in February, were reunited as a family with her husband.
Muslims claiming to be relatives had accused her of leaving Islam. Ibrahim says that she was raised a Christian by her Ethiopian Orthodox mother, and that her Muslim father disappeared when she was 6 years old. International media, Western embassies and human rights groups urged her release when Ibrahim's death sentence was confirmed after she refused to recant her faith on May 15. She was released from prison in Sudan on June 23, less than two months after false charges of apostasy against her set off a firestorm of international protests, only to be detained at the Khartoum airport less than 24 hours later. More than 40 agents from the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested her, and Ibrahim was charged with "forging" travel documents, punishable by nearly seven years in prison. But after U.S. diplomatic intervention she was unexpectedly released.
Family Restoration is a central goal of immigration law, and religious persecution is a veritable rationale to sustain an asylum claim. This is one grateful family! "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..." Romans 1:16
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