Twenty-one martyrs made in Libya today: [1]
Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya, violence likely to deepen Cairo’s concerns over security threats from militants thriving in the neighboring country’s chaos.
Egypt’s state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be held by Islamic State were dead.
In the video, militants in black marched the captives, dressed in orange jump suits, to a beach that the group said was near Tripoli. They were forced down onto their knees, then beheaded.
The video appeared on the Twitter feed of a website that supports Islamic State, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria and has also beheaded Western hostages.
A caption on the five-minute video read: “The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church.”
Lord have mercy.
change_me
55 Comments To "‘The People of the Cross’"
#1 Comment By Alan On February 16, 2015 @ 4:05 pm
@Noah172
Yes, yes, yes. Bush, Obama, Cheney, Hillary and more all as good as beheaded the martyrs themselves through unwise interventions in Libya and Iraq.
#2 Comment By Josh On February 16, 2015 @ 4:10 pm
“You must be a protestant fundamentalist. If they were American Baptists would you sing a different tune? Are these Copts too brown skinned or too Catholic ish for you??”
Absolutely not. My own mother is Lebanese. The jump you make to accusations of racism is ridiculous.
“I heard protestant fundamentalists state that the christians in Iraq who were slaughtered by ISIL cant be described as martyrs since we don’t know for sure if they really had a “personal relationship” with Christ. These men dies because they carry the name of Christ. Indeed as Copts they have the cross of Christ tatooed on their right hands. That is good enough for me.”
There’s a difference between claiming a religion in the absence of any coercion and choosing to die for one. We don’t know if those men had that choice, but everything we do know about ISIS suggests that they didn’t.
One is unfortunate happenstance and the product of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One is a direct choice to give up your life for Christ.
By your logic, any Christian targeted and blown up by Islamic suicide bombers is also a martyr. In my opinion, this diminishes the meaning of martyrdom.
#3 Comment By A.K. On February 16, 2015 @ 8:31 pm
“For the record, in the entire history of the Jim Crow South, were 21 random African Americans ever hung in one fell swoop? Twenty one non-random African Americans?”
The massacres in Wilmington and Tulsa come to mind though “number of random victims meeting or exceeding 21” as test for seriousness of complaint seems a bit too cute. Using that logic, nobody beheaded has the right to complain because they weren’t burned alive in a metal cage and none of the murdered have the right to complain because they haven’t been sold into sex slavery.
#4 Comment By Fran Macadam On February 16, 2015 @ 9:26 pm
“The current Egyptian government, Fran, is a force for good because the alternative is a force for complete evil.”
That’s why Stalin was such a great guy, he was on our side. Once our common foe was defeated, fundamentalist terrorist mujadeen fighting the Soviets were such great freedom fighters until they too became unmitigated evil, once our own purpose for them was served. It also explains why each of our allies becomes in turn our implacable enemy as soon as a common enemy is defeated.
Neo-nazis in the Ukraine are good, because non-communist Russia has suddenly become Absolute Evil.
Well at least we’re clear. Tyranny in our interests is absolute good, democracy that opposes us absolute evil.
Every day, in every way, we are getting better and better. Have another glass of Kool Aid, before you’re told to commit suicide.
#5 Comment By come the (next) revolution On February 16, 2015 @ 9:43 pm
“The current Egyptian government, Fran, is a force for good. “
Sisi is easily as corrupt as Mubarak, even more murderous and oppressive, and only slightly less incompetent. The thousands of butchered and imprisoned Muslims aside, he’s also jailed and tortured scores of Copts, so nobody’s too impressed by his dollar short and day late bombing run against ISIS – pure eyewash.
The Egyptians are on track to rebel again within a few years at most, and for substantially the same reasons as in 2011 because nothing has changed.
So much for the “force for good”.