If You Want To Get Outraged About Something...

[Lord Jim]

Here's something I think we can all agree to be outraged about:

Sudanese woman sentenced to death for her Christianity gives birth in prison

(CNN) -- A Sudanese woman sentenced to die for refusing to renounce her Christianity gave birth to a baby girl in prison Tuesday, her lawyers said.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, delivered her baby at a women's prison in Khartoum, but her husband was not allowed to be present for the birth, sources told CNN. They asked not to be named for safety reasons.

Ibrahim was convicted of apostasy, or the renunciation of faith, about two weeks ago while she was eight months pregnant.

A Sudanese lawyer filed an appeal last week to reverse the verdict by the lower court.

She is in prison with her 20-month-old son, but Sudanese officials have said the toddler is free to leave any time, according to her lawyer, Mohamed Jar Elnabi.

Her husband, Daniel Wani, is a U.S. citizen who uses a wheelchair and "totally depends on her for all details of his life," her lawyer said.

The appeal

The appeals court in Khartoum will issue a ruling on the case in the next week, but it will first ask the lower court to submit the documents it used to make the ruling, according to her lawyer.

Once that's done, it will issue a case number, he said.

"We will continue checking with the appeals court, but Inshallah (Allah willing) ... the appeals court will reverse the sentence and set her free," he said.

Christian or Muslim?

Ibrahim says her father was a Sudanese Muslim and her mother was Ethiopian Orthodox. Her father left when she was 6, and she was raised as a Christian.

The court had warned her to renounce her Christianity by May 15, but she held firm to her beliefs.

Sudanese Parliament speaker Fatih Izz Al-Deen said claims that Ibrahim was raised as non-Muslim are untrue.

She was raised in an Islamic environment, and her brother, a Muslim, filed the complaint against her, according to Al-Deen.

The complaint alleges that she went missing for several years, and her family was shocked to find out she married a Christian, according to her lawyer.

However, because her father was Muslim, the courts considered her one too, which would mean her marriage to a non-Muslim man is void.

Attempts to contact Sudan's justice minister and foreign affairs minister for comment were unsuccessful.

In addition to the death sentence, the court convicted Ibrahim of adultery and sentenced her to 100 lashes.

The Parliament speaker has said the verdict is not final and will go through all the judicial stages to reach the constitutional court.

"The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered,"[I think we can all be on the same page there...] said Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher.

Katherine Perks with the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies said the verdict goes against Sudan's "own constitution and commitments made under regional and international law."

Foreign embassies in Khartoum, including those of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, urged the government to reverse course.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/27/world/afr ... -apostasy/

I suspect that because of all the media attention this story has gotten, that this poor woman will not be executed, and ultimately will be freed...

But it makes me wonder how many similar cases are flying under the radar screen...

[Gob]

Cut off all western aid to the Sudan until religious persecution ends, then see how strong their religious principles are.

[Lord Jim]

Cut off all western aid to the Sudan until religious persecution ends

Works for me.

[Econoline]

According to Wikipedia there are three key U.S. strategic objectives for U.S. aid in Sudan:

1. A definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses, and genocide in Darfur
2. Implementation of the north-south CPA that results in a peaceful post-2011 Sudan, or an orderly path toward
. .two separate and viable states at peace with each other
3. Ensure that Sudan does not provide a safe haven for international terrorists

How would defunding any or all of these objectives help?

[Gob]

According to Wikipedia there are three key U.S. strategic objectives for U.S. aid in Sudan:

1. A definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses, and genocide in Darfur
2. Implementation of the north-south CPA that results in a peaceful post-2011 Sudan, or an orderly path toward
. .two separate and viable states at peace with each other
3. Ensure that Sudan does not provide a safe haven for international terrorists

How would defunding any or all of these objectives help?

The UK concentrates on responding to the underlying causes of conflict and its impact on the poorest and most vulnerable in Sudan - the displaced, women and girls, the urban poor, and the disadvantaged young.

We are:

increasing access to health, water and sanitation, and justice services across all states
responding to ongoing humanitarian needs in Darfur, the Eastern states, and the border areas
supporting the development of the national economy post-secession through support such as vocational training and access to finance
improving education by helping Sudan access $70million from the Global Fund for Education
building links between the higher education sectors in UK and Sudan, leading to improved academic quality and standards
monitoring an extensive training programme for 25,000 English teachers improving both practice and language skills, and technical support for the development and implementation of a new national English language curriculum
building skills with entrepreneurs and providing advice on market access for Sudanese producers.
advising and supporting UK companies who wish to do business with Sudan, increasing the UK’s exports and attracting inward investment
supporting the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to assist the Sudanese government development and economic reform strategy

[Lord Jim]

The partition of Southern Sudan took place some months ago, and having achieved independence,the new country is busy initiating it's own round of killings:

Human-Rights Abuses Rampant in South Sudan

Noah Rayman @noahrayman
May 8, 2014

A U.N. report found "reasonable grounds to believe" that both rebels and the government committed crimes against humanity

The U.N. on Thursday accused both the government and the rebels in South Sudan of human-rights abuses and suggested they committed crimes against humanity.

In a 62-page report based largely on more than 900 interviews with eyewitnesses and victims, the U.N. found both sides committed rape, mass killings and torture, often targeting civilians along ethnic lines.

“In light of the widespread and systematic nature of many of the attacks, and information suggesting coordination and planning, there are also reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, rape and other acts of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and imprisonment have occurred,” the report found.

Fighting broke out in December in the world’s newest nation between government troops under President Salva Kiir and rebel fighters backing Kiir’s former deputy, Riek Machar. The conflict has exasperated underlying ethnic tensions between Kiir’s Dinka tribe and Machar’s Nuer, and the U.N. said in the report that thousands of civilians have likely been killed.

Kiir and Machar are expected to meet Friday in Ethiopia to try to negotiate an end to nearly five months of fighting.

On Tuesday, the Obama Administration imposed economic sanctions targeting a top official from each side in an effort to pressure both sides to the negotiating table.[Ooh, that'll bring 'em to heel... ]

http://time.com/92952/south-sudan-human ... un-report/

[Econoline]

On Tuesday, the Obama Administration imposed economic sanctions targeting a top official from each side in an effort to pressure both sides to the negotiating table. [Ooh, that'll bring 'em to heel... ]

Well, as little as that is, it does make more sense to target top officials rather than punishing the recipients of humanitarian aid while leaving the top officials alone.

[Econoline]

Here's a comment--from a reader at Andrew Sullivan's blogsite The Dish--that sheds a little light on the situation:

Finally, a topic I can write to you about without talking completely out of my ass! In a recent post, you quote a Foreign Policy article to the effect that the Sudanese regime’s decision to execute Mariam Ibrahim for apostasy is “a calculated and direct threat to the role the United States has been playing in the world,” and that it is lashing out now because it is “bitter at the United States’ role in the loss of what is now South Sudan.”

Bullshit. As a left-wing academic steeped in postmodern gobbledygook, nothing would please me more than to blame America for the Bashir regime’s behavior. The reality is that the regime is doing what it is doing for reasons entirely internal to Sudan and that have absolutely nothing to do with the US, the international community, or even South Sudan (the creation of which, I would add, owes relatively little to American efforts – that prize goes to regional negotiators like IGAD).

Over the last decade, the fragile coalition of Islamists, military leaders, and businessmen that rule Sudan has been coming apart at the seams. In early 2012, it nearly collapsed all together when some of the most respected Islamists in the governing National Congress Party wrote a scathing letter to Bashir, accusing him of corruption, incompetence, and betraying the Islamic cause. Since then, Bashir has been desperate to prove his religious bona fides to the younger generation of Islamists on which he has increasingly come to rely (see here for a terrific analysis). That means, among other things, sanctioning outrageous judicial decisions like this one.

I’d also add that it seems unlikely the government will actually follow through on Mariam Ibrahim’s death sentence. It feels inappropriate to make predictions about something so horrible, but people need to understand that this isn’t the first time the regime has done this sort of thing, only to backdown at the last moment. In fact, since the apostasy law first went on the books in Sudan in 1991, not a single person convicted under it has been executed. To this day, the only person in Sudan to be executed for apostasy was the famous reformer Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, but he was hanged before Bashir came to power and for reasons that had nothing to do with apostasy.

Sorry for going on at such length, but you’re finally talking about something I actually know something about and I’m desperate to show off.

(source)