We, the comrades of Unit 1012: The
V.F.F.D.P, will remember the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians murdered by ISIS. We
will post information about them from Wikipedia.
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Photo of the 21 executed Christian Copts
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On February 12, 2015, the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) released a report in their online magazine Dabiq showing photos of 21 Egyptian Coptic
Christian migrant workers that they had kidnapped in the city of Sirte, Libya, and
whom they threatened to kill to "avenge the [alleged] kidnapping of Muslim
women by the Egyptian Coptic Church". The men, who came from different
villages in Egypt, 13 of them from Al-Our, Minya
Governorate, were kidnapped in Sirte in two separate attacks on December
27, 2014, and in January 2015.
Earlier in 2014, a militia group in
eastern Libya declared its affiliation with ISIL, it then took over parts of Derna in late 2014. People allied
to the group claimed responsibility for attacks across the country, including
the Corinthia Hotel attack in January 2015.
Video
On February
15, a five-minute video was published, showing the beheading of the captives on
a beach along the southern Mediterranean coast. A caption in the video
called the captives the "people of the cross, followers of the hostile
Egyptian Church". In the video one of the killers in camouflage declared
in North-American English:
"Oh people, recently you've seen us on the hills of Al-Sham [Greater Syria] and on Dabiq's Plain, chopping off the heads that had been carrying the cross delusion for a long time, filled with spite against Islam and Muslims, and today we… are sending another message: Oh crusaders, safety for you will be only wishes especially when you're fighting us all together, therefore we will fight you all together until the war lays down its burdens and Jesus peace be upon him will descend, breaking the cross, killing the swine. The sea you've hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden's body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood."
After
beheading the hostages, a message appears on the screen: "The filthy blood is just some of what awaits you, in
revenge for Camelia and her sisters" (referencing Camelia Shehata, a Coptic Egyptian woman
and wife of a Coptic priest who Islamists believe had converted to Islam and
was detained by the Coptic Church because of it. She later denied the claim).
Finally the speaker declares "We will conquer Rome, by Allah’s
permission," pointing his knife toward the sea. As in other ISIL videos,
the captives wore orange jumpsuits, intended as
a reference to the attire of prisoners in the Guantanamo
Bay detention camp. The group of killers identified itself in the
video as the "Tripoli Province" of ISIL. The leader of the squad
performing the killings was identified as a Libyan expatriate who goes by the nom de guerre Al Qaqa'a Ben Omro.
The Coptic
Church of Egypt, Egyptian government, as well as the Libyan parliament,
confirmed the deaths.
Following
the release of the video, several experts argued that it had been digitally
manipulated and that the actual murders were likely filmed in front of a green screen and then superimposed onto the
footage of the beach. The videos were manipulated to show the militants as
being over six feet tall in order to propagate fear, although there were
manipulations done to the video, experts say that the 21 Christians were
killed.
Aftermath
The President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced a seven-day
period of national mourning and called for an urgent meeting with the country's
top security body. In a televised address, al-Sisi declared his country
reserved the right for retaliation. He also reiterated an offer to facilitate
Egyptians’ evacuation from Libya and imposed a travel ban on citizens to Libya.
Al-Azhar
also condemned the incident. The killings were also addressed particularly by
the United Nations Security Council,
French President François Hollande, Sahrawi President Mohamed
Abdelaziz and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Roman Catholic Pope Francis telephoned Coptic Pope
Tawadros II to offer his condolences. At an ecumenical meeting with the Moderator
of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Francis stated
"They only said 'Jesus help me ...' The blood of our Christian brothers is
testimony that cries out. Be they Catholic, Orthodox, Copts, Lutherans, it
doesn't matter: They're Christian!" The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade of Hungary provided financial support of €500 for each families of
the victims. Péter Szijjártó said "Hungary cannot be a
bystander of the continuous attacks against Christian communities in the Middle
East". The Obama administration was criticized for referring to the
victims simply as ‘‘Egyptian citizens’’ rather than Christians, the express
reason for their murder.
Egyptian
airstrikes
Main
article: February 2015 Egyptian
airstrikes in Libya
On February
16 at dawn Egyptian military conducted airstrikes on
ISIL facilities in Libya. The airstrikes targeted ISIL training locations
and weapons stockpiles. All military aircraft returned safely to base. Libyan
air force also conducted strikes in Derna,
occupied by an ISIL affiliate since 2014. About 40–50 militants and 7 civilians
were reportedly killed.
Canonized
as saints
On February 21, 2015 the head of the
Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II announced that the 21 murdered Copts
would be commemorated as martyr saints on the 8th Amshir of the Coptic
calendar, which is February 15 of the Gregorian calendar. The commemoration falls on
the feast day of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.
21st
Martyr
After the beheadings, their church
released their names, but there were only 20 names. It was later learned that
the 21st martyr was named Mathew Ayairga and that he was from Chad. He was
originally a non-Christian, but he saw the immense faith of the others, and
when the terrorists asked him if he rejected Jesus, he reportedly said, "Their God is my God", knowing that he would
be killed.
Other sources spell his name as Matthew
Ayariga and say that he was from Ghana.
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