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MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The Sudanese woman who faced a death sentence for refusing to renounce Christianity says she was under intense pressure from Muslim clerics and her jailers to convert to Islam but kept her faith.
Meriam Ibrahim, who now lives in New Hampshire, was sentenced to death in Sudan for apostasy but was freed after an international outcry. Her father was Muslim, and her mother was Christian, but in Sudan children must follow their father's religion.
Muslim women also are prohibited from marrying non-Muslims in Sudan. Ibrahim married Daniel Wani, a Christian from southern Sudan, in 2011.
In an interview aired Monday night on Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File," Ibrahim says she refused to recant her Christian faith even if it meant death because, in her words, "Faith means life. If you don't have any faith, you are not alive."
She also recalled giving birth to her daughter while in prison and shackled at the ankles.
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270-w-32-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor, with freed Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim, speaking through translator)--The Sudanese woman who faced a death sentence for refusing to renounce Christianity says she trusted God throughout the ordeal. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (15 Sep 2014)
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271-a-11-(Freed Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim, speaking through translator, in interview)-"what I believe"-Freed Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim, recalls through a translator how she was pressured by Muslim clerics to renounce Christianity. COURTESY: Fox News Channel's "The Kelly File" ((Mandatory on-air credit. No archive or use after 48 hours)) (15 Sep 2014)
<<CUT *271 (09/15/14)££ 00:11 "what I believe"
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