The BPCA will be collaborating with Christian Voice to hold a witness for Meriam Ibrahim outside the Sudanese Embassy on Friday 6th June 2014 from 2pm to 4pm.
Sign our petition here:
This is despite false reports of Meriam’s imminent release.
The address of the Sudanese Embassy is 3 Cleveland Row, St. James, London SW1A 1DD
Meriam Ibrahim is the Christian Sudanese doctor sentenced to death and to 100 lashes for apostasy, that is converting from Islam to Christianity, and for adultery, that is marrying a man who is not a Muslim. Despite Meriam being brought up by her mother as a Christian, she counts as Muslim according to Sudanese law because her father was Muslim. Her marriage doesn’t count.
Meriam has just given birth to a daughter in prison and has a 2-year-old son by her husband, Daniel Wani. She has refused to renounce Christianity. The Court says she must stay in prison for two years to nurse her baby and will then be executed. It is not know when the flogging is scheduled.
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today: ‘The Sudan court decision has at last been condemned by all UK political leaders, but to our knowledge, no-one has yet taken a protest to the Embassy itself.
‘We are calling the Church to give thanks for Meriam’s courage and to pray for her release, but for those who are near enough, sparing a few hours on a Friday afternoon is the least we can do.
A couple of hours after Christian Voice posted the call to witness on Saturday 31st May, a Sudanese government foreign-office official was reported as saying that Meriam would be released ‘within days’.
Stephen Green responded: ‘This apparent answer to prayer was dashed even quicker. The official had no authority to make such a statement, her husband said he had heard nothing, and her lawyer now says the judicial process must be gone through before any release.
‘We call on President Omar al-Bashir to direct the Sudanese Courts and Government to drop all charges and release Meriam Ibrahim immediately, to allow freedom to convert to Christianity in law and to guarantee the safety of Christians and the ancient Sudanese Christian Church in Sudan.
Wilson Chowdhry, Chairman of the British Pakistani Christian Association, said;
“Christians living in the Islamic World are facing unprecedented levels of persecution and oppression. Asia Bibi a Pakistani mother of 5 sentenced to death for an alleged blasphemy has had to suffer the ignominy of five failed Appeal hearings, because judges are to frightened or extreme in their views to preside over a trial. Incarcerated for over five years her case mirrors that of Meriam, in that she has been detained in prison for no other crime then adherence to her faith.”
He added;
“This incident only serves to magnify societal differences and affects each of us in our own communities. People of good conscience from all faiths must unite in condemnation of this act of oppression, if not, one day we may face similar prejudice where we are.“
