|
Follow the Middle East Forum
|
|
Libya's
War on Christians
|
|
Share:
|
Be the first of
your friends to like this.
Originally published under the title, "Christian
Slaughter in Libya."
Egyptian
copts mourn the slaughter of their coreligionists in Libya.
|
The disputed
fate of the 21 Coptic Christians abducted in Sirte, Libya is now
clear and visible for all to see on video: while holding them down,
Islamic State members shove their fingers in the Christians' eyes, crane
their heads back, and slice away at their throats with knives—all in the
name of Allah and Islam, all as the slaughtered call
out on the "Lord Jesus Christ."
Earlier, the BBC had falsely reported that 13
of these now slaughtered Copts were "released." (Such
downplaying of Muslim persecution of Christians is, of course, standard
for the BBC.)
In the video, the lead executioner waves his dagger at the camera whileboasting
of the Islamic State's savagery:
Oh people, recently you have seen us on
the hills of as-Sham and Dabiq's plain [Syrian regions], chopping off the
heads that have been carrying the cross for a long time. And today, we
are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another
message.
He adds: "We will fight you until
Christ descends, breaks the cross and kills the pig" (all
eschatological actions ascribed to the Muslim "Christ," Isa).
As opposed to the Obama administration's reactions to Islamic State
beheadings of Americans and others—namely, strong
assertions that such actions are not Islamic—Egyptian President Sisi
responded to the slaughter of Egyptian citizens by immediately sending
fighter jets to bomb Islamic State targets in Libya.
The Islamic State is calling on
Muslims to find and slaughter more Coptic Christians.
|
What did these Coptic Christians—or, as the Islamic State refers to
them, "The Humiliated Followers of the Coptic Church"—do to
deserve such treatment? According
to Catholic Pope Francis, "They were killed simply for the fact that
they were Christians. It makes no difference whether they be Catholics,
Orthodox, Copts or Protestants. They are Christians!"
Far from being satisfied with the slaughter of these 21 Christians,
the Islamic State is calling on Muslims to find and slaughter more Coptic
Christians. (Copts make for the majority of Christians in Libya, having
migrated there from neighboring Egypt to find work during the reign of
Moammar Gaddafi; most of them are desperate to return but need aid from
the Egyptian government to cross the Libyan desert.)
In its online English magazine Dabiq, after justifying the
slaughter of the 21, the Islamic State concludes
that "it is important for Muslims everywhere to know that there is
no doubt in the great reward to be found on Judgment Day for those who
spill the blood of these Coptic crusaders wherever they may be found."
And indeed, spilling Coptic Christian blood in Libya—and being
rewarded for it—has been ongoing for some time now. This most recent
beheading, which received a decent amount of media attention, is only the
latest in a long line of Muslim persecution of Christians in Libya.
A few days before the 21 Christians were abducted (in two separate
incidents), a
Christian father, mother, and young daughter were slaughtered in the
same region, Sirte. On December 23, Islamic militants raided the
Christian household, killing the father and mother (a doctor and
pharmacist, respectively) and kidnapping 13-year-old Katherine. Days
later, the girl's body was found in the Libyan desert—shot three times,
twice in the head, once in the back (graphic
images here).
Anti-Christian atrocities were
unheard of under Moammar Gaddafi's authoritarian rule.
|
Nothing was stolen from the household, even though money and jewelry
were out in the open. According to the girl's uncle, the motive
was that "they are a Christian family—persecuted."
In short, as I wrote nearly a year ago, it continues to be "open
season on Christians in Libya." Last February 2014, after Ansar
al-Sharia—the "Supporters of Islamic Law," now an Islamic State
branch—offered a reward to any Benghazi resident who helped round up and
execute the nation's Coptic residents, seven Christians were forcibly
seized from their homes by "unknown gunmen," marched out into
the desert and shot execution style 20 miles west of Benghazi (graphic
pictures appear
here).
Days later, another 24-year-old Coptic Christian was shot
in the head by "unknown gunmen" while unloading food in front
of his grocery stand in Benghazi. On the next day a corpse was found,
believed to be that of yet another Copt—due to the small
cross tattooed on his wrist traditionally worn by Egyptian
Christians.
This is to say nothing of the
churches attacked, of Christian
cemeteries desecrated, and of 100
Christians—including Western
ones—arrested, tortured (some dying) for possessing Christian
"paraphernalia" (like Bibles and crosses) in the post
"Arab Spring" Libya the Obama administration and its allies
helped create.
Needless to say, such atrocities were unheard of under Gaddafi's
"authoritarian" rule (just as they were unheard of in Saddam
Hussein's Iraq, just as they were unheard of in Syrian regions formerly
under Bashar Assad, etc.).
Muslim slaughter of Christians is the litmus test of how
"radical" an Islamic society has become. In every single
Mideast nation where the U.S. and its Western allies have interfered—Iraq, Egypt
(under
Morsi), Libya,
and ongoing Syria—the
slaughter of Christians there is a reflection of the empowerment of
forces hostile to everything Western civilization once stood for.
It also means that the barbarous Islamic State—far from waning and
being limited to portions of Iraq and Syria—is growing stronger, now well
entrenched in Libya too.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman
Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen
Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a CBN News contributor. He is
the author of Crucified
Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians (2013) and
The
Al Qaeda Reader (2007).
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment