Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali writes the following for the Times of Israel:
HARTOUM, Sudan (AFP) — A Sudanese judge on Thursday sentenced a Christian woman to hang for apostasy, despite appeals by Western embassies for compassion and respect for religious freedom.
Born to a Muslim father, the woman was convicted under the Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.
Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 27, is eight months pregnant and married to a Christian national of South Sudan, which separated in 2011, human rights activists say.
“We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged,” Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa told the woman, addressing her by her father’s Muslim name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.
Khalifa also sentenced Ishag to 100 lashes for “adultery.” Under Sudan’s interpretation of sharia, a Muslim woman cannot marry a non-Muslim man and any such relationship is regarded as adulterous.And this is precisely why we need to speak out against political Islam and al-Sharia.
If we cannot bring ourselves to stand up against the single most vicious, fascistic and rising political movement in the world today then we have no business referring to ourselves as "liberal" or "progressive."
I am not saying that we need to wage war against the forces of political Islam throughout the Muslim world. What I am saying is that we need to speak out against this movement and we need to stop funding and supporting Islamist organizations like the Brotherhood and possibly, soon, Hamas.
It is just a matter of basic human decency and common sense. How it is that the Obama administration thought that funding the Big Daddy of all Islamist groups in Egypt - the Brotherhood, of course - and providing them not only with diplomatic cover, but heavy weaponry, was a good idea?
And here is another question:
How is it that pro-Israel supporters of Israel do not conceive of Obama administration support for the Muslim Brotherhood as representing support for the Muslim Brotherhood?
I find it exceedingly odd.
Obama gave money to the Brotherhood.
He gave weaponry to the Brotherhood.
He invited them to various soirees and discussions.
He provided them with diplomatic cover and even sent Secretary of State Clinton to Cairo to ensure a smooth transition to an Islamist government.
And, yet, I have been told by highly intelligent people that Obama does not, and did not, support the Muslim Brotherhood.
It simply defies the imagination.
