A Sudanese woman sentenced to death for marrying a Christian man

A Sudanese woman who was born to a Muslim father was sentenced to death by hanging for marrying a Christian man

Ibrahim, who was born to a Muslim father but raised Orthodox Christian by her mother, was first sentenced on Sunday, but she was given until Thursday to change her mind and convert. She refused to do so, Al Jazeera reports.

“I am a Christian and I never committed apostasy,” Ibrahim said.

Ibrahim was found guilty of apostasy — the abandonment of one’s religious faith – because she was born to a Muslim father and married a Christian man. The adultery charge came as Islamic law prohibits Muslim women from marrying outside of their religion, a rule which effectively voided the marriage.

Sometimes when you read this sort of news, you wish it isn’t true. Unfortunately, we are still living in time where human rights don’t exist in most part of the world.

Last week, I posted a brief description of how Atheism is viewed by Islam/Muslim and an overview of regulations governing apostasy. The main justification for death sentence (for apostate) is that those apostates are enemies of the state or for not following the religion correctly or as best as he/she could. I never believed that to be the case. I feel apostasy is a badly conceive law that has been a useful tool to justify tyranny, silencing of the critics, terrorizing those perceived as misbehaving and protecting the feelings of the community that get offended very easily, such as this case of a Sudanese woman married to a Christian husband.

The Sudanese woman is considered a Muslim automatically just because her father is one. The fact that her mother is a Christian or she herself claims to be one doesn’t matter or mean much. She is forced to obey and follow the rules of a religion she doesn’t believe in.
Islamic rules clearly state that a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man. Her marriage is actually null and void. Her parents’ marriage on the other hand is legal because Islam allows Muslim men to marry Christian women. I know this is a bit of double standard but that’s not the point I was trying to make. If her parents’ marriage were invalid then she could at least use the argument of not being legally bonded to her father’s religion because of not being connected to him legitimately, hence free to follow either of the religions.
The most difficult decision this woman will be force to make eventually is what she values the most. Does she value her life more than her husband or she values her marriage more than her life. The news report stated she claimed to always be a Christian and so the claim of abandoning Islam is inaccurate. I don’t think the court saw the irony here.

This is a tricky situation to navigate. She could convert to Islam and get the death sentence remove. But she still has the adultery/fornication charge because a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man. Her husband can possibly convert to Islam and make the community happy so he gets to maintain the marriage until a day in the future when their fake religiosity and pretension is exposed and they are again brought up for ....apostasy.

Islamic rules are fairly complicated. You would think with having complicated rules, you are bound to find some loop holes somewhere to help her get off from the punishment. Unfortunately, nowadays the trends have been to interpret Islam in the most severe and harshest manner possible.

I personally don’t think people should be forced to convert to any religion/faith. Sadly, I’m in the minority here. As whole, the Muslim community has been governed by irrationality and unjust laws/rules that don’t seem to contribute much in the human development. It only seems to reflect their sorry state.

Best hope now is for her to gain asylum somewhere so she can move out of Sudan and live peacefully with her family.

Reference
http://time.com/100815/sudanese-woman-death-marrying-christian/