Facebook Bans Ad for Movie About Meriam Ibrahim, Who Was Sentenced to Death for Her Faith

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Mar 19, 2015   |   11:03AM   |   Washington, DC

The social media web site Facebook is coming under fire for reportedly banning an ad promoting a new movie about Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian woman who was sentenced to death last year for her faith. Ibrahim was pregnant at the time of the sentencing and gave birth in prison while shackled before she was ultimately released and returned to the United States with her family.

A proposed Facebook advertisement for the ‘I Am A Christian’ film was supposedly rejected because it violated Facebook’s guidelines.

The ad follows:

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Here’s what’s happened:

The text of the advert, which can be seen on the film’s Facebook page, says: “Are you a Christian? We challenge you to change your profile picture to this ‘I Am A Christian’ photo for one week! Change your picture now, and challenge your friends to do the same. Stand up and declare, ‘Yes, I Am A Christian!!!'”

The text of the advert, which can be seen on the film’s Facebook page, says: “Are you a Christian? We challenge you to change your profile picture to this ‘I Am A Christian’ photo for one week! Change your picture now, and challenge your friends to do the same. Stand up and declare, ‘Yes, I Am A Christian!!!'”

When the film’s promoters queried the response they were told: “Your ad wasn’t approved because it doesn’t follow our language policies. We’ve found that people dislike ads that directly address them or their personal characteristics such as religion.

“Ads should not single out individuals or degrade people. We don’t accept language like ‘Are you fat?’ ‘Wanna join me?’ and the like. Instead, text must present realistic and accurate information in a neutral or positive way and should not have any direct attribution to people.”

The movie will reportedly include Fox News contributor Stacey Dash and God’s Not Dead star Kevin Sorbo, known for his strongly pro-life views.

At eight months pregnant, Ibrahim had been sentenced to death for not renouncing her Christian faith and she was imprisoned and eventually forced to give birth while shackled in the Omdurman Federal Women’s Prison in North Khartoum, Sudan.

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Ibrahim was freed from prison after an appeals court found a lower court’s death penalty sentence to be unfounded. Ibrahim and her husband, who has both Sudanese and U.S. citizenship, traveled to the airport in Khartoum to leave the country for the U.S. They were arrested at the airport and accused of using forged travel documents, a claim Ibrahim denies.

Ibrahim and her husband were released from the police station after being questioned, and they are being forced to stay in Sudan.

Eventually, they were released and made their way to the American embassy and to the United States.