Please take a moment to
visit and log in at the subscriber
area, and submit your city & country location. We will use this
information in future to invite you to any events that we organize in
your area.
Sudan
Mother's Case 'Tip of the Iceberg' on Islamic Persecution
  Be the first of
your friends to like this.
Evidence has again emerged indicating that if Western mainstream media
actually reported more on the sufferings of Christians throughout the
Islamic world, their lot would likely improve.
Meriam Ibrahim, a woman who is imprisoned in Sudan and sentenced to
death on the charge that she apostatized from Islam and converted to
Christianity—and who recently gave birth to a baby girl in prison—was
reportedly going to "be
freed in a few days," according to a BBC
report:
Abdullahi Alzareg, an under-secretary at the foreign ministry,
said Sudan guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting
the woman.
Khartoum has been facing international condemnation over the death
sentence.
In an interview with The Times newspaper, British Prime Minister David
Cameron described the ruling as "barbaric" and out of step
with today's world (emphasis added).
Of course, soon after the BBC reported that Ibrahim would be freed,
other reports appeared indicating that that is only a
rumor—one that the BBC, which regularly tries to minimize the specter of Muslim persecution of Christians,
jumped on—that Sudan was merely trying to save face before the
international community.
According to the imprisoned Christian woman's husband: "No
Sudanese or foreign mediator contacted me. Maybe there are contacts
between the Sudanese government and foreign sides that I'm not aware
of."
At any rate, why did Sudan say Ibrahim was going to be released? After
all and despite what Sudan's under-secretary says—that "Sudan
guaranteed religious freedom and was committed to protecting the
woman"—Khartoum's Islamist government upholds Islam's apostasy law,
which actually guarantees that born Muslims do not have
"religious freedom."
As just one example, back in June 2012 in Sudan, a Muslim woman
divorced her husband after he converted to Christianity. The court
automatically granted her custody of their two sons (according to Islamic
law, children of divorced parents are to remain with the father, but if the
latter is an apostate, they go to the mother). When the father tried to
visit his children, his ex-wife threatened to notify authorities.
"They might take the case to a prosecution court, which might lead
to my sentencing to death according to Islamic apostasy law—but I am
ready for this," the Christian man had said. "I want the
world to know this. What crime have I done?"
And that's the whole difference: "the world" did not
"know this," whereas the major media did report on Ibrahim's
plight, thereby exposing Sudan to international condemnation.
Precedents of this phenomenon—international outrage prompting Islamist
governments to rethink their abuse of Christians—have occurred in other
Muslim countries.
For example, back in September 2012, two other Christians under arrest
and awaiting execution in the Islamic world—one, like Sudan's Ibrahim,
charged with apostasy in Iran, the other with blasphemy in Pakistan—were
also released, but only after much widespread international condemnation,
that is, only after the mainstream media exposed their plight.
As CNN had reported:
A Christian pastor sentenced to death in Iran for apostasy was
reunited with his family Saturday after a trial court acquitted him… Pastor Youcef
Nadarkhani, born to Muslim parents and a convert to Christianity by
age 19, was released after being held in prison for almost three years
under a death sentence…. His case drew international attention
after his October 2009 arrest, and the 34-year-old pastor refused to
recant his Christian beliefs (emphasis added).
Earlier, in 2006, one Abdul Rahman was exposed as an apostate to
Christianity and subsequently arrested, incarcerated, and sentenced to
death. Because his story also received widespread media attention and
international condemnation—and even a phone call from the U.S. Secretary
of State Rice to Afghanistan's president—Abdul Rahman was released under
the pretext that he was mentally retarded, though most sources indicated
he was quite sane. (Muslim governments regularly portray apostates and
blasphemers whom they wish to release as retarded, since, according to
Islamic law, the insane are not responsible for their actions. Even
Pakistan's Rimsha Masih, prior to her release, was portrayed as mentally retarded.)
The point here is that such prisoners of conscience are not released
because their respective governments suddenly decided to act according to
universal standards of human rights. If so, they would not have arrested
the accused in the first place. Nor should such releases suggest that
Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, or Sudan are rethinking Islam's apostasy and
blasphemy laws, which prescribe the death penalty.
After all, there are countless more Christian "blasphemers"
and "apostates" rotting on death row in all three countries,
not to mention all around the Islamic world.
As with Sudan, Christians in the aforementioned countries are
habitually persecuted, imprisoned, and or killed. In Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on
Christians, Iran's persecution of apostates to Christianity is so
widespread that it warrants a special "spotlight" section;
Pakistan also gets a special spotlight section for its frequent arrests
and imprisonments of Christian "blasphemers."
Indeed, just days ago a Christian couple in Pakistan, one illiterate
the other disabled, received the death sentence for allegedly sending
"blasphemous" text messages.
However, unlike Sudan's Ibrahim, Iran's Nadarkhani, Pakistan's Masih,
and Afghanistan's Rahman, the Western mainstream rarely if ever hears
about these many unfortunates.
And that's the whole difference.
Unlike the many faceless Christians persecuted all around the Islamic
world, the Western mainstream media actually reported on these three,
prompting public outrage, international condemnations, and in some
instances the threat of diplomatic actions and/or sanctions.
For Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan such "infidels"
were simply too much of a liability to punish as Sharia demands—the same
Sharia, incidentally, that teaches Muslims to be lax and tolerant when in
their interest, such as when the international community
puts them in the spotlight.
Thus such freed Christians are a reminder of the important role the
Western mainstream media can play in alleviating the sufferings of
minorities throughout the Islamic world. For if they were not reported
on—as the overwhelming majority of persecuted Christians are not reported
on—they would surely still be in prison on death row, where so many other
nameless and faceless Christians remain.
So consider the impact the mainstream media could have if they were to
report the full truth and extent of Muslim persecution of Christians; if they stopped
portraying the few they do report on as anomalies but rather as the tips
of a very big and ugly iceberg.
The fact remains: the overwhelming majority of people in the West
remain woefully ignorant of the sufferings of non-Muslims under Islam,
thanks to the mainstream media's general indifference or worse.
However, as precedent suggests, when enough people in the West do hear
about them, they do act, prompting their governments and human rights
groups also to act, prompting Islamist governments to realize that
persecuting this or that Christian is simply not worth it.
In the case of Sudan's Meriam Ibrahim, time will only tell if the
major media will forget about or try to dismiss her story—as the BBC may
be doing—or whether they will continue exposing the truth of her plight,
which, at this point, is likely the only way this wife and mother who
refuses to renounce Christianity for Islam can ever hope to escape
execution.
Raymond Ibrahim, a CBN News contributor, is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians
and The Al Qaeda Reader. He is also Shillman
Fellow, David Horowitz Freedom Center; Judith Friedman Rosen Writing
Fellow, Middle East Forum; and Media Fellow 2013, Hoover Institution.
Related
Topics: Anti-Christianism,
Radical Islam This
text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an
integral whole with complete and accurate information provided about its
author, date, place of publication, and original URL.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment