[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10855]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          FREEDOM OF RELIGION

  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, I wish to talk today about a couple of 
issues. This first issue I will address concerns the first freedom and 
the First Amendment in this country, a matter which people in other 
parts of the world are seeing in jeopardy, and that is freedom of 
religion.
  I read an article from the BBC about the current status of Meriam 
Ibrahim. Just 2 days ago she was acquitted of her death sentence in 
Sudan, and many people in this building and around the world applauded 
her release. She was sentenced to death because she would not disavow 
her Christian faith. In fact, for months she had been held in prison. 
She gave birth to a child while she was in prison, and she had a young 
child with her while she was in prison. The birth of the baby, and then 
the early months of the baby's life, was the determining factor as to 
when she would be first beaten and then hanged because she would not 
disavow her faith.
  Two days ago, she and her two children were set free. She is the wife 
of a naturalized U.S. citizen. She had been imprisoned by this 
government, and unfairly so. Many of my colleagues have been working to 
secure her release. Last month Senator Ayotte and I sent a letter to 
Secretary Kerry urging him to offer and provide political asylum for 
her immediately. We should not have to provide asylum for her family. 
Her husband is a U.S. citizen, and because of that both her children 
are U.S. citizens. Because of her faith, she had been sentenced to 
death.
  The State Department wondered how much jurisdiction it had in this 
case, and so Senator Ayotte and I sent another letter to both the State 
Department and Homeland Security--that agency has the ability to allow 
people to leave a country or come into a country.
  On Monday, it looked as though the situation was moving in the right 
direction. She had reportedly been acquitted and was set free. She was 
allowed to join her husband and their children at the airport, but 
yesterday when they tried to leave the airport, news outlets reported 
she was rearrested. I hope by rearrested they mean she was detained for 
paperwork, but the Sudanese Government needs to let her go.
  If they are so concerned about the issue of faith and don't want 
someone there who is willing to promote another faith--or at least live 
another faith--they should at the very least let her leave the country. 
I think asylum in the United States for her U.S. citizen husband, her 
U.S. citizen children, and her is appropriate. That way the danger they 
feel they face by someone who is willing to profess another faith would 
be gone.
  I cannot imagine why the Sudanese Government would not allow her to 
leave the country, and I encourage them today to release them.
  NBC News reported:

       The NISS, a shadowy and feared institution, said on its 
     Facebook page that Ibrahim and her family had been attempting 
     to travel to the U.S. with documents from the Embassy of 
     south Sudan, which split from its northern neighbor in 2011 
     after years of civil war. It said she was carrying a U.S. 
     visa, and that her attempts to use the documents were 
     considered a ``criminal offense.''

  Apparently the documents were purportedly--at least according to this 
news report--from South Sudan. But those documents should have been 
enough to let her leave and should not have been considered another 
criminal offense.
  These authorities have told reporters that Meriam Ibrahim was using a 
valid travel document issued by the Embassy of South Sudan, and then 
suddenly her valid travel documents were deemed not valid.
  The State Department, I hope, is doing everything it can to work with 
the Sudanese Government to ensure that this family is able to come back 
to the United States. This continued harassment over someone's faith 
has to end. We need to be doing everything we can. Her husband is a 
U.S. citizen and her children are U.S. citizens. This is an American 
family and Sudan should let them leave and let them leave now.
  If this were the only time something such as this happened, it would 
be a terrible problem, but this injustice takes place in so many 
countries around the world. Apparently the one faith you can't profess 
is the Christian faith.
  When news of Meriam's death sentence came to light, it was about the 
same day there were reports of another American citizen, Pastor Saeed 
Abedini, who had been beaten badly in a hospital in Iran. He was there 
because of his faith. He was taken to an Iranian prison that was 
notoriously known as the most dangerous prison you could possibly be in 
in Iran.
  Last year I joined with 11 of my colleagues--at the time Secretary 
Clinton was leaving--urging Senator Clinton to use every resource we 
had to release him as well. Our government condemned the Iranian 
Government for his prosecution.
  He converted to Christianity as a teenager before moving to the 
United States with his wife. He established some churches that were 
underground churches in that country.
  In 2009, he was arrested for so-called Christian activities. He was 
released on bail. He agreed not to continue his work with the 
underground churches, but as he was traveling back and forth between 
the United States and Iran in recent years, he was working to establish 
nonreligious orphanages in Iran.
  In September of 2012, he was detained after he lawfully came into 
Iran through Turkey. He is now serving an 8-year jail sentence on 
charges related to his Christian faith, and all the while he has been 
interrogated intensely and beaten to the point where he was taken to 
the hospital and then he was beaten in the hospital. After that, he was 
taken to the most dangerous prison you could take a person to in Iran.
  The activities I have just described cannot be allowed to continue. I 
don't know how we can move forward with talks with the Iranians and not 
ask them for such a simple gesture that would allow this U.S. citizen 
to come back to the United States--and don't kill him in one of your 
prisons or hospitals. It would show a sign of a good-faith effort as we 
continue to have these discussions.
  I hope the President will step forward, along with the Secretary of 
State, and talk about these grave abuses of human rights.
  Last year the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reported out a 
bipartisan bill to appoint a special envoy for the purpose of promoting 
religious freedom among religious minorities in the Near East and South 
Central Asia. The House has already passed this bill.
  This continued violence--particularly against Christians--against all 
religions that governments are in disagreement with is deeply 
disturbing. It defies the freedoms we hold dear.
  When people's rights to their own religious beliefs are abused in the 
Middle East or Sudan or anywhere else, the United States of America 
should be the first country to step up and say: We are going to do 
whatever we can to ensure more religious freedom, and in this 
particular case, to ensure that the Ibrahim family--in prison in 
Sudan--is able to leave and Pastor Abedini is able to leave Iran.

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