What the Meriam Ibrahim case can tell us about the state of Islam

What the Meriam Ibrahim case can tell us about the state of Islam

Stes de Necker

Author  Hasan bin Talal.

The tragic story of Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old woman sentenced to death for apostasy in Khartoum, where she is being held with her 20-month-old son, has shocked and saddened millions of rational, moral and empathic people around the world. Along with other leaders from the international community, I have written personally to the president of Sudan seeking Ibrahim's release and am very hopeful she will soon be reunited with her family.

As is frequently the case with our media working to the demands of a frenzied 24-hour news cycle, there have been a lot of loud opinions expressed in even louder voices. These have only served to obscure the facts, a close discernment of which would give any rational person hope that we will soon see an end to this senseless tragedy.

Ibrahim has been sentenced for apostasy, a word that is derived from the Greek apostasia, which means defection or deviation. In Ibrahim's case there have been not one, but two defections – from the Sudanese constitution and from the teachings of Islam.

First, the fact that Ibrahim has been sentenced to death by a lower court, whose ruling has no standing in federal matters, has been largely ignored. The interim constitution of Sudan, drafted in 2005, explicitly permits freedom of religion in Sudan. Article 38 of the constitution, which deals with freedom of creed and worship, states that "every person shall have the right to the freedom of religious creed and worship – and no person shall be coerced to accept a faith that she or he does not believe in".

Whether the government of President Omar al-Bashir has followed the letter of the country's law in its actions to date is beside the point. The point is that the case has no legal standing in a higher court. The unconstitutionality of Ibrahim's sentencing (in addition to the international outrage) explains why Abdullahi Alazreg, under-secretary at Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has issued a statement saying that he expects her to be released soon (although the latest reports suggest that offer may have been retracted).

There is another apostasy that bears looking at in greater detail. Ibrahim's sentencing is also a clear deviation from the basic tenets of Sharia law. The famous jurist al-Ghazali (considered by many to be the single most influential Muslim after the prophet Muhammad) has stated the freedom of religion as the first of five essential rights that Sharia has granted to all individuals – the others having to do with the protection of life, lineage, intellect and property.

And yet, despite all of this, Ibrahim was sentenced in the name of Islamic law. How did this happen? Her case is symptomatic of a larger malaise afflicting the Arab and Muslim world, in which events are unfolding in a manner devoid of a rational compass or a clear moral underpinning. As we have seen in the recent past, when the public puts forth questions to the religious authorities they receive answers that in many cases clash with Islamic teachings, are not governed by logic or are simply unpalatable to taste. The end result is a confusion that becomes apparent in matters such as women's rights or the freedom of belief.

'The Qur'an has explicitly underscored that human will is the principal wellspring of faith'. Photograph: Shabbir Hussain Imam/EPA

There is really little need for confusion. The Qur'an has explicitly underscored that human will is the principal wellspring of faith rather than coercion or compulsion – for the simple reason that after being coerced, the human heart cannot find peace with itself, let alone with a fellow human being. In fact, there are numerous Qur'anic verses which emphasise the full freedom of man to embrace the religion that he desires and not to be forced to follow a particular religion.

These are not merely pleasant sentiments or platitudes. Their essence has been crucial to the very survival and growth of Islam. The rapid spread of Islam from north Africa to Asia within a century of its inception can largely be attributed to its ability to absorb and encourage the belief systems and teachings of foreign cultures. People in the west often forget how if it weren't for the Hellenised elites of the Arab world, the teachings of Plato, Euclid and Socrates would have passed into darkness. From the earliest days of the religion to the millet system practised by the Ottoman empire, the religion not only coexisted but engaged actively with Christianity and Judaism.

Why then are the strains of plurality that have sustained and nourished the Islamic world being eroded?

The answers might be found in more secular reasons as opposed to religious ones. After decades of oppressive rule by dictatorial regimes, large sections of the Arab world have been left unable to cope with a rapidly changing world. The low self-confidence that we find in large segments of the dispossessed exacerbates the sense of fear and enhances the feeling of being under threat. This in turn makes people more rigid in matters that give them comfort – for example, matters to do with religion and freedom of belief.

We see this extremism when terrorists use the ninth Sura of the Qur'an to justify acts of violence, when in reality the chapter calls for violence not to punish disbelievers, but only defend yourself against people who explicitly attack you – a sentiment that can be easily understood by the most atheistic westerners.

Inflexibility and extremism has a ripple effect. Large swaths of people reassess their beliefs when they perceive forms of backwardness, fanaticism and violence prevailing among some of the adherents of their own religion. Ibrahim might or might not have been a Muslim at some point in her life. The point is that if Muslims do not bring clarity to understanding the basic tenets of the religion, and if they do not embrace the flexibility that helped Islam flourish and grow, there will be many more Muslims who will leave the faith.

Rational people have an important role to play in recognising that the tradition of Islam was not built on uniformity – rather it was built on recognising the universality within all beings.

To give just one example of the harmony that has characterised large parts of Islamic history I'd like to go back to its very beginnings. The prophet Muhammad himself had a document drawn up for the protection of St Catherine that was sealed with a print of his hand. In the margin of the copy of the Achtinames, recording the prophet's will, a chapel and a minaret are illustrated side by side with a staircase occupying the space between them.

In that space it is my hope that we will obstinately continue to tell and record our stories. It is why we have organised the west Asia and north Africa forum in Amman on 11-12 June. The forum will be attended by leaders, academics, policy-makers and religious officials from all over the Arab world and will deal with how we can enable access to justice for all people that have no recourse to legal mechanisms for their most fundamental rights – be it religion, property, education or water.

I sincerely hope that this forum will help result in transnational measures that will prevent cases like that of Ibrahim occurring again. And that going forward the apostasies, these defections both from the rule of law and religious beliefs alike, cease.