A Happy Ending: Meriam Ibrahim Arrives at Her New American Home

Let’s begin the weekend with some good news. Meriam Ibrahim is in the United States, safe and free. CNS News has the details:

A Sudanese woman who refused to recant her Christian faith in the face of a death sentence arrived Thursday in the United States, where she was welcomed first by the mayor of Philadelphia as a "world freedom fighter" and later by cheering supporters waving American flags in New Hampshire.

Meriam’s story should give us all hope. Freedom can indeed find its way into even jihadist-dominated states. Sudan has a recent genocidal history, having fought a war of extermination against Christians and animists in the South (now South Sudan), and when word leaked that a Christian woman had been sentenced to death for “apostasy” (she was falsely-accused of converting from Islam), it would have been easy to give up, to just shake our heads as jihadists escorted her to the gallows.

But you did not give up. You spoke out -- along with citizens and governments and activists from across the world, with both Great Britain and Italy instrumental to Meriam’s freedom.

Because you spoke out, this happened:

The family was met at the Manchester airport by Gabriel Wani, Ibrahim's brother-in-law, and dozens of supporters holding balloons, signs and flags. The crowd cheered as they stopped in the terminal, and several women reached out to hug Ibrahim.

"We're just going to go and bring them home," Gabriel Wani said. "They want to come home, and they want to rest."

While our nation has many problems, it is days like this when I am especially proud to be an American. Meriam and her family can live and worship here in freedom, without fear of a jihadist at her door. Our American liberty still represents the “hope of the world,” and that is why we at the ACLJ defend it so zealously.

Welcome to your new American home, Meriam. May God richly bless you and your family.