Trump claims he secured 2014 release of persecuted Christian Mariam Ibrahim: 'I did that'
Quick Summary
- Trump claims he made a phone call that secured the release of Christian Mariam Ibrahim in Sudan.
- Ibrahim was sentenced to death for apostasy before fleeing to the U.S. in 2014.
- Critics question Trump's involvement, noting no evidence of his role in her release during the Obama administration.
President Donald Trump claimed during last week's National Prayer Breakfast that he made a phone call that secured the release of Mariam Ibrahim, a persecuted Sudanese Christian mother who was released and fled to the United States during the Obama administration.
Toward the end of a digressive, hour-long address to the prayer breakfast last Thursday, Trump appeared to veer off the text of his prepared remarks when he highlighted the plight of Ibrahim and her daughter, Maya, both of whom were in attendance.
"Believers all over the planet rallied to Mariam's cause, prayed for her protection, and successfully pressured for her release," Trump said before drifting into an apparent ad-lib claiming he played a role.
"I did that. I did that. I did that with one phone call, actually," he said. "And she had such support, it was so easy. And when I explained it to the powers that be: 'Yes, sir, we will do it right away.' I just wish I knew earlier. But it's a big world with a lot of people."
Ibrahim, who spoke to The Christian Post in 2016 and has been living in the U.S. since 2014, made headlines that year when she was sentenced to death for apostasy in Sudan because she married Daniel Wani, a Christian man who was also a U.S. citizen.
Under Sharia law, Ibrahim was considered legally Muslim because her father was a Muslim, though she was raised as a practicing Christian by her Christian mother.
After being flogged with 100 lashes for alleged adultery, Ibrahim was imprisoned along with her baby son and spent Christmas 2013 in jail, where she gave birth to Maya while shackled to a prison floor. She claimed she was unsuccessfully pressured by prison guards for days to renounce Jesus Christ amid her suffering and humiliation.
After a Sudanese appeals court ordered her release following intense international pressure, Ibrahim told CP in 2016 that a fellow female inmate who was Muslim assisted in smuggling in a Bible and keeping it secret while also helping to care for her infant son. She later learned the woman converted to Christianity.
Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor who led the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) when Ibrahim was freed, said he had no memory of Trump playing a role in her release.
"As Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2014, I advocated for Mariam Ibrahim," George told CNN. "I do not recall Donald Trump being involved in the case or assisting our Commission's efforts."
"Of course, he was not president at the time. Whether he was working privately outside our view, I cannot say. It is certainly possible," George added.
A former Obama administration National Security Council official told the outlet they had no knowledge of Trump's involvement in the case and would be "very surpris[ed] if he were.”
The Christian Post has reached out to Ibrahim for comment.
Trump drew criticism from some Evangelicals for the tone of his address to the National Prayer Breakfast last week, which opened with him joking about his remarks last fall that he is "maybe not Heaven-bound."
Trump also interweaved his administration's defense of religious liberty with personal attacks against his political opponents, specifically fellow Republicans Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., as well as Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, all of whom are Christians.
