A Modern Martyr

I cannot stop thinking about Miriam Ibriham, the young woman from Iraq who has been imprisoned for months with her young children.  She was sentenced to 100 lashes and then beheading for the crime of leaving her Muslim faith and converting to Christianity.  The truth is, however, that her Muslim father abandoned the family when she was only a baby, so she was raised by her Christian mother.  She was never a Muslim.  As a young woman, she married an American man, also a Christian, and had two children, if I remember rightly. 

When pregnant with her third child, she was arrested and imprisoned with her two young children, awaiting the birth of the third so that her sentence could be carried out.  She gave birth to the infant while chained hand and foot to a prison wall.  Because of world-wide public outcry over the injustice of this judgment, she was temporarily released, but then re-arrested just moments before she and her husband and children boarded a plane to freedom.  Since then, no one has heard where she is.  She may be dead, or suffering untold tortures in a prison cell underground.

Miriam Ibriham was given the option to renounce her Christian faith to save her life, but she would not do it.  The Catholic church honors Saints Perpetua and Felicity, two early martyrs in the Roman empire.  Perpetua also gave birth to an infant while in prison for her faith; her servant Felicity was nursing a child while in prison.  Both of these women handed over their infants to others before going to face their deaths in the Coliseum.  We do not know the fate of Ibriham's children at this moment, but it is safe to call Miriam a modern martyr. 

What is it about Christianity that makes it such a threat to an evil empire?  Why have Jews and Christians been so persecuted throughout history?  (To be fair, the Catholic Church did its share of persecution and torture of Jews and Muslims also during the Spanish Inquisition, and even Protestant sects have gone through periods of bloody persecution of Catholics and "infidels.")  Jesus warned us that "...the world has hated [you], for [you] are not of the world any more than I am of the world....if you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own....if they persecuted me, they will persecute you also....they will treat you this way because of My Name, for they do not know the One Who sent me....He who hates me hates My Father as well" (Jn. 17 & 15).

The sixth chapter of Ephesians tells us that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  This is coming from Paul himself, who persecuted and put to death the early Christians -- thinking, as Jesus told us, that he was doing God a favor.

The forces of evil are relentless; in the name of God, countless people like Miriam Ibriham have been beheaded, scourged, tortured, imprisoned and hated throughout history.  Those of us who are able to freely and openly practice our Christian faith surely owe a great debt to those who have not been so fortunate.  Let us continue to pray for Miriam Ibriham and others like her who are victims of "...the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."