A New York City church is offering to pay for the flights to have Meriam Ibrahim and her family leave Sudan along with providing them food and shelter.
Pastor William Devlin of Manhattan Bible Church traveled to Sudan and met with the Foreign Minister. The pastor says that he asked the Minister to intervene to allow the family to leave the country with him.
“The Devlin family has offered to bring this family back to the USA from Khartoum and have them live with us. I have been interviewed by the U.S. State Department in Washington D.C. and I have also met for three hours with the U.S. Ambassador to Sudan here in Khartoum – and his senior staff,” Devlin said in an email to The Christian Post on Sunday. “I, along with another brother in the Lord, were able to go to the Safe House where this persecuted family is currently living in Khartoum and minister to them for over an hour.”
The family is reportedly in good health despite the Sudanese government’s continued actions in keeping Ibrahim from leaving the country. The family is still waiting for the results of an ultrasound to see if newborn Maya will be able to walk after complications with her birth.
Persecuted Christian Meriam Ibrahim has asked the world to pray for her daughter who will be undergoing an ultrasound to see if the injury from her birth will cause permanent disability.
Doctors are telling Ibrahim that it’s possible the injuries suffered at birth are not as severe as initially feared and that it’s possible the child will be able to walk on her own. Ibrahim was forced to give birth with her legs tied together with chains because the prison guards would not release her for the birth.
Ibrahim and her family have been taking refuge in the U.S. embassy after being released from prison on charges related to her Christian faith. The family has been hoping to leave the country but the Sudanese government continues to refuse to allow the family passage out of the nation.
The family has been especially sensitive to the possibility of the child being confined to a wheelchair for life because her father, Daniel Wani, is wheelchair bound because of multiple sclerosis.
Congregants of the Church of Christ in the Thiba Al Hamyida area of Khartoum stood by helplessly as Sudanese government officials destroyed their church building.
A church member told CNN that the government came in during Sunday mass and said they would be destroying the building. About 70 security personnel, some armed with guns and tear gas, used a bulldozer to destroy the building.
“They wanted to beat us or throw tear gas on us,” the church member said.
Reverend Kwa Shamal told the Morning Star News that government officials made it clear they were to not ask questions about why they were destroying the church. The government also gave no compensation to the church for the destruction of their building.
The pastor said the church’s congregation will meet in a tent this Sunday.
The Islamists family members of persecuted Christian Meriam Ibrahim are attempting to get the death sentence against her reinstated by trying to prove she was “born a Muslim.”
The family contends that because she’s a Muslim, her marriage to a Christian man is illegal under Sudan’s Sharia Law.
The lawyer hired by the family says they are going to ask Khartoum Religious Court to review the case and declare Meriam Ibrahim “belongs” to the men in her family.
Ibrahim is in hiding at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum with her American husband and two children. She has been unable to leave the country because of the government’s special police charging her with using illegal documents to leave the country.
Ibrahim’s lawyer Mohanem Mostafa said that the court has not officially notified her of the lawsuit but that he believes the court will dismiss the case.
Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian woman who had been facing the death penalty on charges that she converted from Islam because her father was a Muslim, is reportedly in hiding at the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum while she and her family attempt to leave the country.
Ibrahim had been arrested attempting to leave the country a day after her death sentence was overturned because Sudanese officials say she was using her Christian name on travel documents rather than her Islamic name and had documents from South Sudan rather than Sudan.
Ibrahim was reportedly released on the charges related to her attempt to leave the country on the grounds that she not leave Sudan.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department says it’s entirely up to the Sudanese government to say when Ibrahim can leave the country. Marie Harf said that the State Department confirmed Ibrahim has all the correct documents to leave Sudan according to international law.
A BBC report says that Ibrahim’s arrest was made by members of the National Intelligence and Security Service that was unhappy with Ibrahim’s release from her death sentence. The arrest was reportedly a way to send a message to the rest of the Sudanese government.
Sudanese authorities have released Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim again after her arrest on using what was termed “illegal documents.”
“The airport passport police arrested Abrar after she presented emergency travel documents issued by the South Sudanese Embassy and carrying an American visa,” the Sudanese national security force wrote in a Facebook post. “The Sudanese authorities considered [the action] a criminal violation, and the Foreign Ministry summoned the American and South Sudanese ambassadors.”
Abrar is the Islamic family name used by her relatives.
Ibrahim’s attorney Eman Abdul-Rahman said that she had been released Thursday following significant pressure on the Sudanese government by leaders from other nations including the U.S. State Department.
“We’re encouraged that the State Department is engaged and working to secure the freedom of Meriam and her family,” Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the American Center for Law and Justice, told Fox News. “Whether Meriam and her family have been ‘temporarily detained’ or arrested, holding U.S. citizens against their will is extremely disturbing and unacceptable. It has always been our concern that the only way the Ibrahim family could be truly safe is to leave Sudan.”
Sudanese authorities reportedly stopped Meriam Ibrahim because she used her “Christian name” on her passport and visa to leave for the United States rather than her “birth Islamic name.”
“The State Department has been informed by the Sudanese Government that the family was temporarily detained at the airport for several hours by the government for questioning over issues related to their travel and I think travel documents. They have not been arrested. The government has assured us of their safety,” said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
“The Embassy has been and will remain highly involved in working with the family and the government,” Harf continued. “We are engaging directly with Sudanese officials to secure their safe and swift departure from Sudan, and of course, we’ll provide more information as we get it.”
Ibrahim is reportedly at a friend’s home after bail was posted for her. However, Ibrahim’s attorneys say that if she leaves the country, the government will penalize the person who posted bail.
Tina Ramirez, the founder of the electronic activist group Hardwired, said that the United States is responsible for the problems because they did not coordinate Ibrahim’s departure from the country with the Sudanese government.
A day after being released from prison because her death sentence for apostasy was thrown out by an appeals court, Meriam Ibrahim was arrested at the airport in Khartoum as she was preparing to leave the country with her family.
Elshareef Ali Mohammed, the lawyer representing Ibrahim, said he was at the airport with the family when 50 security force personnel hostilely confronted her and her family. He said the security forces would not give a reason for why they were arresting Ibrahim. He said they knew she had been cleared by the court but arrested her anyway.
She was taken to a detention center with her two children and her American husband Daniel Wani.
A Sudanese court initially convicted Ibrahim for apostasy because her father was a Muslim. The court said it did not matter that she was raised a Christian and had always been a Christian.
The prayers of millions of Christians throughout the world were answered joyously with the release of Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim.
Sudan’s SUNA news agency said the ruling was made Monday morning. The appeals court cancelled the verdict and sentence of the previous court meaning that Ibrahim could be immediately released from prison. She and her children were reportedly taken to a house that was not disclosed to the press for security reasons as she and her family have received death threats from Islamists.
Ibrahim was convicted by a Sudanese court last month of apostacy and adultery because though she said she was always a Christian and married a Christian man, the court said she was Muslim because her father was Muslim and thus could not convert to Christianity or marry a Christian man. Her child proved her adultery in the eyes of the court.
She gave birth to her second child while in prison and was forced to give birth with her legs shackled to the wall.
Ibrahim, married to American Daniel Wani, had been the subject of international outcry with British Prime Minster David Cameron, former PM Tony Blair and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for her immediate release.
The family has not said if she will remain in Sudan. Her husband had told various news outlets during her imprisonment that they would flee the country if she was ever set free.
A petition calling for the White House to act in the case of Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her faith in Christ, has stalled at just over 50,000 signatures.
The petition needs to reach 100,000 signatures by June 27th to be guaranteed an official response by the Obama administration.
The petition to the White House says in part “We strongly urge the administration to take action in the case of Dr. Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese mother who with her toddler and newborn baby (who pending the proper documentation are American citizens), is languishing inside a prison in Khartoum.”
Over 40 Christian groups calling on the Obama administration to stand up for Ibrahim and to finally stand up for religious freedom in general held a rally outside the White House.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who attended the rally, said that Ibrahim represents a major need for the U.S. to stand for religious freedom around the world. He said that the administration has been especially lax when it comes to American Christians who are being persecuted.
If you wish to sign the petition, visit the White House petition site:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/act-case-meriam-ibrahim-sudan-and-her-baby-and-toddler-prison/D1x1q4VG