[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 123 (Friday, August 1, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1300-E1301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  THE TROUBLING CASE OF MERIAM IBRAHIM

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 31, 2014

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, for weeks this spring, the 
world watched as Meriam Ibrahim Ishag, a pregnant Christian woman in 
Sudan, faced flogging and the death penalty because her government 
would not accept that she had lived her life as a Christian and married 
a Christian man. Meriam has demonstrated both courage and grace under 
pressure--giving birth in jail in May while chained and caring for her 
two children, including her newborn, not only under restraints, but 
also without the normal amenities that any pregnant woman and nursing 
mother should expect.
   The harsh application of Sharia law on non-Muslims was the trigger 
for a two-decade civil war in Sudan and the eventual secession of the 
South. Sudan is one of 20 countries in the world who have laws against 
apostasy--defined as the abandonment by an individual of their original 
religion. In Sudan, apostasy is effectively considered leaving the 
Muslim faith, particularly the interpretation of Islam followed by 
authorities. In Sudan, to leave the Muslim faith is an automatic death 
sentence. If you are considered an apostate, you cannot legally marry 
someone of another faith, and for this, Meriam also was charged with 
adultery and sentenced to flogging.
   However, this story is not just about harshly applied religious and 
legal principles in violation of national and international law. Daniel 
Wani, Meriam's husband, is a Christian who is a dual American and South 
Sudanese citizen. He has lived in the United States for more than a 
decade. He married Meriam in late 2011, and they had a son a year 
later. Somehow, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum could not find a way to 
help this American to get his family out of Sudan before a crisis 
developed, even after she was arrested and released last year in 
charges involving apostasy.
   A hearing that I recently convened was intended to examine the facts 
as we know them to determine how strictly applied rules almost led to 
the officially sanctioned beating and execution of a young woman who 
has lived as a Christian all her life, but who has now been told that 
she has no right to choose her religious belief.
   This hearing was originally supposed to take place in June, but at 
the urging of both the U.S. Government and Sudanese officials, we 
postponed it to allow for quiet diplomacy to take place. However, prior 
to the hearing, Meriam's legal entanglements seem to be increasing 
rather than diminishing.
   A Sudanese court initially ruled that the mere fact that her father 
was Muslim means that she should have been raised as a Muslim. She was 
given three days to convert to Islam, but she told authorities she 
would not abandon her Christian faith. Her refusal to leave the faith 
she had practiced her entire life led to her being in mortal fear for 
her life.
   Fortunately, a Sudanese appeals court believed that she considered 
herself Christian and overturned her conviction on apostasy and 
adultery charges. However, members of her family have appealed the 
overturning of her conviction. Meanwhile, the Government of Sudan 
rearrested Meriam for using South Sudanese documents in an attempt to 
leave the country, and while she was released on bail. Fortunately, she 
was able to leave Sudan last week.
   We cannot be absolutely certain of the exact chain of events that 
led to the situation that Meriam was in prior to her release. The 
Department of State understandably declined to testify last week 
because of the sensitive nature of the then ongoing efforts to end the 
matter satisfactorily. Daniel and Meriam were still in Sudan at that 
point. Daniel was free to leave with his children, but he chose, of 
course, to stay with his wife, until she too could leave with her 
family.
   Since Meriam's conviction in May, a bipartisan, bicameral 
Congressional coalition worked to undo the harsh penalties for her 
under the apostasy and adultery laws and secure her family's 
repatriation to the United States. Contact was made with Daniel, as 
well as the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum and the Sudan embassy in 
Washington. Eventually, the headquarters offices of both the State 
Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services got involved.
   Yet one wonders why this matter had to come to a crisis stage before 
a means could be found to avoid what now seems to have been an 
inevitable outcome in this case. Daniel told congressional staff that 
he sought help from the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum but was told that he 
should seek an attorney since the situation was mostly focused on his 
wife, who was not an American. This was the advice he received even 
when he was arrested and had his passport seized. An American citizen 
should expect more from his government's representatives in a foreign 
country when that country's government has taken action against them.
   Under the principles of natural law, which are the basis of our 
governing documents and those of countries around the world, there are 
certain inalienable rights endowed by Our Creator. The decision on how 
to worship Our Creator is one of them.

[[Page E1301]]

   Elements in Sudan's Islamic clergy and in the government interpret 
the Koran to give them license to tell people how they will live out 
their faith whether they consider themselves Muslim or not. In Meriam's 
case, her father has been absent from her life since she was a small 
child. Her Christian mother raised her as a Christian.
   Sadly, Meriam is not the only Sudanese who chose differently on the 
matter of faith only to be faced with a death sentence for that choice. 
Sudanese civil activist Mahmud Muhammud Taha was arrested and charged 
with apostasy in 1984 for his efforts to end Sharia law in Sudan. He 
was subsequently executed.
   In some countries, Christian converts have been forced to renounce 
their faith and conform to the version of Islam favored by the 
government of the day. Some of these countries have constitutions that 
ostensibly guarantee religious freedom even as they may also have laws 
that actually contradict those rights. Except for Malaysia, Oman, 
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the other 15 
countries including Sudan, have signed the International Covenant on 
Civil and Political Rights guaranteeing freedoms for their citizens.
   Article 18 of that document enshrines ``the right to freedom of 
thought, conscience and religion.'' Speaking of the rights of the 
individual, that article also forbids ``coercion which would impair his 
freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice. Article 
18 also guarantees ``the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or 
belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community 
with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or 
belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.''
   The current report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious 
Freedom, or USCIRF, cites Sudan as a ``country of particular concern'' 
due to its government engaging in ``systematic, ongoing and egregious 
violations of freedom of religion or belief.'' According to USCIRF, 
Sudan is the world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of 
religion or belief.
   USCIRF's Zudhi Jasser recommended in his testimony that not only 
should the U.S. Government take appropriate actions against Sudan as 
detailed in the International Religious Freedom Act, but that our 
government should also make religious freedom and human rights a 
centerpiece of U.S.-Sudan bilateral relations.
   The troubling case of Meriam Ibrahim Ishag should warn of future 
incidents in which those who do not believe in Islam as defined by a 
government are persecuted or placed in fear of death or torture.

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