An Irish pastor who condemned Islam during a sermon is being investigated by police in Northern Ireland for a possible hate crime.
Pastor James McConnell of Whitewell Metropolitan Church gave a sermon on Sunday May 18th condemning Islam after being outraged over the treatment of Meriam Ibrahim, a Sudanese Christian sentenced to death because she will not convert to Islam.
In the sermon, Pastor McConnell said that Christians around the world are persecuted and killed daily for belief in Christ by “fanatical worshippers of Allah.” He said that Allah is not the same as the Christian God but rather a heathen deity and the British government was foolish for attempting to appease radical Islamists.
Northern Ireland politicians immediately condemned the pastor’s comments. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said that the preacher’s comments about the Islamic religion were “hate mongering.” He called for a full investigation of the pastor to see if his comments could generate racist attacks on Muslims.
A group of Senators are stepping up to stand for religious freedom not only in the United States but around the world by calling on the Obama administration to offer political asylum to a Sudanese woman sentenced to death for being a Christian.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, the wife of an American citizen, is still facing death because she stands by her Christian faith despite the Sudanese government refusing to admit she had never been a Muslim. The government says that after she gives birth, when that child turns 2 she will be hung to death.
“I am disgusted and appalled by the inhumane verdict Ms. Ibrahim has received, simply for refusing to recant her Christian faith,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a resolution condemning the death sentence for being a Christian. Republican Senators Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Chris Coons of Delaware and Bob Menendez of New Jersey joined Rubio.
“Through our U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, the White House and the State Department have communicated our strong concern to the highest levels of the Government of Sudan over this case,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “We’ve also joined with other embassies in Khartoum to express our concern in a widely distributed public statement. U.S. Embassy officials have been engaged in the case from the earliest days.”
Ibrahim’s husband Daniel Wani is confined to a wheelchair and according to his family “depends on her for all the details of his life.”
Meriam Ibrahim, the 26-year-old Christian woman sentenced to death for converting from Islam when she had never been a Muslim, is reportedly being mistreated by her captors in a Sudanese jail.
Ibrahim’s husband, U.S. citizen Daniel Wani, was able to see his wife for the first time since her capture and trial on Monday.
“She was shackled and her legs were very swollen,” Wani told members of a U.S. based advocacy group that is fighting for his wife’s release. Wani said that the prison is keeping her shackled at all times and making no accommodations for her advanced pregnancy.
The courts are allowing the couple’s 18-month-old son to stay in the jail cell with his mother because they do not recognize Wani’s rights as the boy’s father. The government says the boy is automatically Muslim and because Wani is a Christian he cannot have custody or parent the child.
Witnesses say that her brother who recently converted to Islam brought Ibrahim to the attention of the authorities. The brother created a fake birth certificate for his sister that he used to claim she was born a Muslim.
