Libya report

France 24, Libya: Misrata tries to resist Islamic State group "Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Libya has been plunged into political instability. Two rival authorities have been competing for power for nearly 18 months and the Islamic State organisation is taking advantage of this institutional chaos to take over part of the country."

Orthodox Patriarchs attend Opening Ceremony of �Against the Crime of Genocide� Global Forum

His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon represents the OCA at historic, symbolic event.

OCP Media, April 22, 2015

Pope Tawadros II addresses gathering; Metropolitan Tikhon of the OCA at far right.

His Holiness Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II participated in the Opening Ceremony of �Against the Crime of Genocide� Global Forum. His Holiness Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, the President of Armenia Mr. Serzh Sarkissian, Mr. Thornborn Jagland, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, and Prof. Daniel Feierstein, President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars spoke in the High Level Segment of the Opening Ceremony. 

The Opening Ceremony was also attended by His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Coptic Patriarch and Pope of Alexandria, His Beatitude Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Raii and many representatives of Churches particularly from Russia, England, Jerusalem, Egypt, Zimbabwe, and Cyprus.

In the first panel consecrated for the religious leaders and dealing with the subject of the Genocide, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II opened the session with a prayers for the Coptic and Ethiopian martyrs of the massacres in Libya. His Holiness Catholicos Karekin II then spoke about the effects of a genocide and how the holy shrines, churches, monasteries, and cultural centers are destroyed in an attempt to eliminate any trace of the persecuted people or their culture.

He called the international community and people of good will to recognize the genocide, comparing it to the confession of sins, with its stages of confession, repentance and redemption. He emphasized that the condemnation of such crimes is essential for prevention of the like in the future. He also expressed his worries of the rise of new similar crimes especially in the Middle East, referring to the recent Coptic and Ethiopian massacres in Libya. In his talk, Pope Tawadros II spoke about remembering the martyrs and explained the meaning of martyrdom in the Church.

His Holiness Patriarch Mor Ignatius Aphrem II asked the audience to pause in silence and prayer for the return of their Eminences Mor Gregorius Youhanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, especially since today marks exactly 2 years since their abduction. He then spoke about the link between what happened 100 years ago during the Armenian Genocide and the Syriac Genocide Sayfo to the abduction of the archbishops, as the same will to exterminate a people whose only sin is being �courageous Christians�. His Holiness also condemned the killings of Copts and Ethiopians in Libya and the killing and abduction of Syriac-speaking Christians in Khabour, Syria. He concluded with the hope that the risen Lord gives us and an affirmation to stay in our homeland despite all persecutions.

His Beatitude Cardinal Mar Bechara Boutros Al-Rai spoke about the difference between a legal and theologica debate about the Genocide. He called all to remember to restart anew, recognize that this is a genocide in order to avoid the like and confess the sin of killing in order to reach total repentance.

Letters were read from representatives of Patriarch of Russia Kyrill, Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilus III and Archbishop of Cyprus Chrysostomos II as well as short speeches by the Anglican Church Representative and the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Zimbabwe Seraphim.

Islamic State Executes Ethiopian Christians for Not Paying Jizya, or �Tribute�

Two more groups of faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ, who refuse to renounce their Lord and God.

by Raymond Ibrahim, April 19, 2015

The Islamic State has just released another video where it executes more Christians, this time for not paying jizya � the tribute demanded of Christians according to Koran 9:29 in order to live under Islam as Christians.

Two scenes appear in the 29-minute long video.  The first scene consists of a group of Christian Ethiopians dressed all in black, with armed and masked Islamic State members standing behind them.  According to the video, this scene takes place in  the city of Fezzan.  The Ethiopian captives are called �Nationals of the cross, from among nationals of the Ethiopian Church.�

The second scene is of more Christian Ethiopians dressed in orange uniforms and standing on the shores of Barqa � the same area where the 21 Egyptian Christians were reportedly earlier decapitated.  The same masked narrator appears speaking about the �battle between truth and falsehood� and the refusal of these Christians to pay jizya.

The next scene is of the Christians in Fezzan all being executed with gunfire and the Christians in Barqa all being decapitated.

Other scenes include the narrator referencing  the fatwas of medieval jurist Ibn Taymiyya that proclaim all Christians �infidels.�  Abu Malik ibn Ans al-Nashwan, apparently one of the group�s leaders, also appears saying that �The dealings of the Islamic State with Christians under its authority is according to Allah�s Sharia [Islamic law].   Jizya [tribute] is imposed on those who accept, and war on those who resist.�

He added that the Islamic State invited the Christians of Raqqa, Syria to enter Islam, but they refused.   So IS demanded of them payment of jizya and they complied and were permitted to live.  Next follows a scene depicting Christians in Raqqa � according to the video�s claims � saying how �peaceful� life is under the Islamic State, and that the caliphate does not compel them to do anything except pay jizya.

The video shows other scenes and cities under IS� jurisdiction, including pictures of churches in Ninevah and Mosul in Iraq being destroyed purportedly because Christians there refused to pay jizya.

Ominous Sign of the Future: Muslim Migrants from Libya throw Christians Overboard

The fate of the murdered Christian migrants is the image of our future, unless we form a human chain to resist our attackers.

by Ralph H. Sidway

Survivors from the shipwreck of a boat arrive on April 15, 2015 aboard the tanker Maria Bottiglieri in the port of Corigliano Calabro, Italy (AFP Photo/Alfonso Di Vincenzo)

The shared experience. 

How people, often from very different backgrounds, countries, nationalities and races, and even religions, can bond in simple human camaraderie, especially when going through difficult challenges and trials together, helping one another, looking out for each other, protecting not just one�s own family but those of one�s fellow travelers, one�s fellow strugglers. 

The shared experience.

Yet in the Associated Press report of the horrific crime against migrant Christians � fellow migrants seeking a better life � we see into the Muslim heart of darkness:

ROME (AP) � Italy's migration crisis took on a deadly new twist Thursday as police in Sicily reported that Muslim migrants had thrown 12 Christians overboard during a recent crossing from Libya, and an aid group said another 41 were feared drowned in a separate incident. 

Palermo police said they had detained 15 people suspected in the high seas assault, which they learned of while interviewing tearful survivors from Nigeria and Ghana who had arrived in Palermo Wednesday morning after being rescued at sea by the ship Ellensborg. 

The 15 were accused of multiple homicide aggravated by religious hatred, police said in a statement. 

The survivors said they had boarded a rubber boat April 14 on the Libyan coast with 105 passengers aboard, part of the wave of migrants taking advantage of calm seas and warm weather to make the risky crossing from Libya, where most smuggling operations originate. 

During the crossing, the migrants from Nigeria and Ghana � believed to be Christians � were threatened with being abandoned at sea by some 15 other passengers from the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali and Guinea Bissau. 

Eventually the threat was carried out and 12 were pushed overboard. The statement said the motive was that the victims "professed the Christian faith while the aggressors were Muslim."

The AP story reports that the survivors did literally forge a bond through their shared experience of enduring a brutal, murderous attack of jihad terror:

The surviving Christians, the statement said, only managed to stay on board by forming a "human chain" to resist the assault.

But is there more to this story than migrant-Muslim-on-migrant-Christian jihad murder, even if one takes into account the smuggling angle?

Recall how the Islamic State titled its infamous video of the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya, �A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross,� and after the slaughter, with red-soaked foam lapping at the Libyan coast, the narrator threatened: �And we will conquer Rome, Allah willing.�

Italian officials did not take the threat lightly, warning, �ISIS is at the door.�

Alarmingly, as The Daily Beast reported back in February, ISIS may already have made it through the door, via the spiraling migrant influx challenging Italy�s security apparatus.

Italy saw �a 64 percent increase in illegal migrant arrivals by sea since last year. In all of 2014, more than 170,000 people arrived from Libya and Turkey, the highest number ever recorded.� 

Even worse, defense analysts warn that Italy has never been so exposed to an attack, due in large measure to heavily armed sea-based smugglers melding with those illegal migrants. The Daily Beast article added that �The Office of Migration in Rome says there could be as many as half a million people in camps waiting to come to Italy and the unrest will push them out faster.� 

And embedded within that half million, how many ISIS operatives might there be?

Looking beyond the specific threat to Italy and Rome, we continue to see shocking numbers of Muslims in the West being drawn to join the Islamic State. The attraction for certain Middle Eastern and African Muslims can hardly be less, as attested by the remorseless wave of crimes against Christians and their churches committed not only by ISIS or other jihadi groups, but more and more by the Christians� very Muslim neighbors (see also here and here).

Even statistical research reveals that more and more �ordinary� (or, as Western leaders invariably describe them, �moderate�) Muslims sympathize with the goals of the Islamic State as honoring Islam and purifying their lands of infidel presence. Here are some examples:

• 80% of London Muslims Support ISIS
• 27% of Young French Muslims (1.62 million) back the Islamic State - Poll
• Newsweek: 16% of French Citizens Support ISIS, Poll Finds
• 92% of Saudi�s believe that �Islamic State conforms to values of Islam� - Poll
• New Poll of Muslim Countries Finds Double-Digit Support for Terrorists

As Raymond Ibrahim reports concerning Arabic media sources, such Muslim views are mainstream and deeply engrained in the Islamic mind. One Saudi writer recently wrote, �They [Saudi institutions] said that the Christian is an infidel, a denizen of hell, an enemy to Allah and Islam.  So we said, �Allah�s curse on them�.�

Taking all this into account, the Muslim attack on Christians in a migrant boat crossing the Mediterranean is a sign of our times, a dark symbol and metaphor for a future which is rapidly beginning to come into focus:

We are all in a boat together, but there is a band of people in our boat which seeks to throw the rest of us overboard, to kill us, to sink and drown us, to eliminate us.

The fate of the murdered Christian migrants is the image of our future, unless we too form a human chain to resist our attackers.

In Pictures: Christian Churches Under Islam

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here are 20,000 words to consider, courtesy of the indefatigable Raymond Ibrahim (originally posted April 7, 2015):

"As Orthodox Easter approaches � Orthodoxy being the most native form of Christianity practiced by the indigenous Christians of the Middle East � it is well to reflect on the status of post �Arab Spring� Christianity.  A sampling of the many ruined and destroyed churches follows:"

The purpose in viewing the entire gallery of devastation on Raymond's site, is to move us to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters suffering persecution throughout the Islamic world. I am the most slothful of all in this regard, so I ask your forgiveness...

Fr Georges Massouh on the 21 Martyrs in Libya

"Middle Eastern Christians are called today to become words, to become wounds that wipe away the sins and transgressions of this Middle East. They heal it through their suffering in all their tragedies, wars and woes and they spread peace wherever they are found."

Arabic original here.  In a similar vein, I�d highly recommend reading these two articles recently published in The Atlantic: What Isis Really Wants and Why Obama Won�t Talk about Islamic Terrorism.

The Innocence of Islam, not of Islamic Institutions

Fr Georges Massouh, OCP Media, February 21, 2015

The apologetic and justificatory rhetoric has become repugnant. The excuse has become more vile than the crime. The pictures of imams and patriarchs coming together have become unconvincing� What happened in Libya� and before that in every part of this suffering Middle East� cannot be confronted with a parroted rhetoric about religions� not being responsible for the spread of terrorism in our lands. If it is axiomatic to say that religions are not responsible, this in no way means that religious institutions and their leaders are not responsible for the growth of extremism and the rejection of those who are different, even if they belong to the same religion.

If it is true to assert that Islam is innocent of the crimes and atrocities of ISIS, religious institutions that have not  undertaken their duty to disseminate a culture of mutual respect and total equality between Christians and Muslims are responsible for the dissemination of the culture of religious hatred and rejection of people of other religions and creeds. These same institutions are likewise responsible for disseminating a culture of hatred between sects of Islam, since they have not done enough to eliminate the causes of religious divisions and disagreements between Muslims themselves.

[I would strongly disagree with Fr Georges' parsing of his words, assigning innocence to Islam, and culpability to Islamic institutions and leaders. Islam itself is forever guilty of all sins perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam, Allah and Muhammad by virtue of the commands contained in its sacred texts and the example of its founder. Let us say this simply and without rancor, even while holding out the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims, inviting them to leave their false religion and turn to the True God.]

What we are witnessing today is nothing other than the outcome of decades of extremist religious thought. For about half a century, we have been witnessing the spread of takfiri religious discourse and the proliferation of movements that use violence in order to realize their goals. The writings of Sayyed Qutb (the Egyptian thinker executed in 1966) have contributed to the rise of an Islamic ideology that justifies declaring societies that do not rely upon Islamic law in their governance to be unbelievers  and adopting terror as the sole way of arrive at that to which they aspire.

The spread and expansion of ISIS is nothing other than the inevitable rise of this takfiri Islam and of the inability of the official religious institutions to confront takfiri thinking with thinking that is open to modernity. The gate of ijtihad is shut, even if the opposite has been said. Until the present, the state governs its Coptic citizens according to laws and decrees that go back to the days of the Ottoman Empire� As for the religious institutions subject to the current regime, they are silent about the injustice affecting their partners in the nation and make no effort to produce modern legal rulings based on total equality of rights and obligations between Muslims and non-Muslims. We have, for example, the restrictions placed on permission for building churches and the tremendous conveniences for building mosques as a glaring example of the disparity of treatment.

Yes, Christians are the people of the Word [al-Kalima]. They are the people of Jesus Christ and His closest friends. Thus, they are the people of woundedness, and in Arabic al-kalm means �wound�. They are neither the people of a book nor dhimmis and they are not pleased with being under anyone�s protection [Arabic: dhimma]. However, they realized that they are called to be witnesses to the Word in these blessed lands, even if this requires blood, suffering, torments, and forever-open wounds.

In the context of the dogma of the redemption, the Christian tradition believes that Christ �was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.� Even though it is recognized by Christians that Christ is the only redeemer, Middle Eastern Christians are called today to become words, to become wounds that wipe away the sins and transgressions of this Middle East. They heal it through their suffering in all their tragedies, wars and woes and they spread peace wherever they are found. Only then can Christians celebrate Christ�s rising from the dead and so too celebrate their own rising from the hell surrounding them on every side.

The sight of the 21 martyrs has reminded us of the prophecy of Isaiah, �He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth� (Isaiah 53:7). The Christian tradition is unanimous in saying that this prophecy was realized when Jesus Christ was crucified, as He is the slaughtered lamb who redeemed the world with His blood. However, Christ said to His apostles that their fate would not be better than His fate: �They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service� (John 16:2). Blessed are they. They were led like their Master to martyrdom and have passed from life to life.

The martyrs who watered the soil of Libya with their innocent blood have realized within themselves the words of the Psalmist when he said, �Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright� (Psalm 20:8-9). Indeed, they have risen and stand upright in the presence of God. As for the Christians, the descendants of the martyrs and saints, they must stand firm where they are� geographically, religiously, morally and culturally� until the trial has passed. This is their life-giving cross, so let them bear it. The resurrection is coming, without a doubt, and it has come.

Source:

New Martyrs of Libya added to the Coptic Synaxarium

COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH of ALEXANDRIA
Diocese of Los Angeles, Southern California and Hawaii
February 21, 2015 � h/t John

His Holiness Pope Tawadros II announced the inclusion of the 21 Coptic New Martyrs of Libya in the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church today. Every year, they will be commemorated on 8 Amshir in the Coptic calendar, which corresponds to 15 February in the Gregorian calendar, the same day as the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple.

Axios, Axios, Axios!

This beautiful icon, which is also featured on the diocese front page, was drawn by Tony Rezk. May the Lord reward his talents.

See also:

• Metropolitan Tikhon speaks at NY memorial for 21 Coptic martyrs
• Names of the Martyrs and Statement on the Martyrdom of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya
• Coptic Martyrs Call on �Lord Jesus Christ� Before Slaughter

Remember these Holy New Martyrs in your prayers, and ask them to intercede for us! 

The Martyrs� Names

1. Milad Makeen Zaky

2. Abanub Ayad Atiya

3. Maged Solaiman Shehata

4. Yusuf Shukry Yunan

5. Kirollos Shokry Fawzy

6. Bishoy Astafanus Kamel

7. Somaily Astafanus Kamel

8. Malak Ibrahim Sinweet

9. Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros

10. Girgis Milad Sinweet

11. Mina Fayez Aziz

12. Hany Abdelmesih Salib

13. Bishoy Adel Khalaf

14. Samuel Alham Wilson

15. Worker from Awr village

16. Ezat Bishri Naseef

17. Loqa Nagaty

18. Gaber Munir Adly

19. Esam Badir Samir

20. Malak Farag Abram

21. Sameh Salah Faruq

Islamic State: �Great Reward� for Killing Coptic Christians

How the Islamic State justifies the killing of all Christians anywhere, in the context of collective punishment. 

by Raymond Ibrahim, February 13, 2015

Some of the 21 Coptic Christians executed by the Islamic State in Libya

The following excerpt from the Islamic State captures well the perverse logic that its many members and even more sympathizers operate on.  It recently appeared in an Islamic State report explaining why the jihadis already did... execute 21 Coptic Christian workers abducted in (post-�Arab Spring�) Libya.   The justification begins by positioning the 2010 Islamic raid on the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Iraq � where nearly 60 Christian worshippers were slaughtered (graphic pictures here) � as a response to the absurd allegations (based on Muslim projection) that the Coptic Church of Egypt was forcing � and killing � Muslim women to convert to Christianity.   In short, the Islamic State justifies the killing, not only of Coptic Christians, but all Christians anywhere, in the context of, yet again, �collective punishment.�  The excerpt follows, interspersed with my observations (emphases mine):

[T]he Islamic State leadership decided to target the Catholic Christians of Baghdad so as to teach the taghut [tyrant] of the Copts � [late Pope] Shenouda � that the price of Muslim blood is costly, and so accordingly, if his church persecuted any Muslimah [female Muslim] in Egypt, he would directly be responsible for every single Christian killed anywhere in the world when the Islamic State sought its just revenge�  And the deaths did not begin until after the crusaders had expressed their arrogance and refusal to execute the righteous demands of the mujahidin [jihadis]. 

So more than 100 crusaders were killed and injured by just five brave istishhadiyyin ["martyrs"] from the Islamic State.

  Click here for the graphic aftermath of this �brave� venture.

And the different Christian churches had no one to truly blame but Shenouda for the deaths of their brethren on kufr [disbelief]. 

[...] 

And so, five years after the blessed operation in Iraq, Allah granted the Islamic State expansion to Libya, Sinai, and elsewhere, allowing it easily to capture the Coptic crusaders � the followers of the dead Shenouda and the supporters of the taghut Sisi � as the Salaf [early pious Muslims] said, �The reward for a good deed is another good deed.�

In other words, due to the 2010 �good deed� of killing nearly 60 Christians during church service in Iraq, Allah has allowed the Islamic State to grow and kill more Christians in Libya and elsewhere.

And thus, the Islamic State strikes terror directly in the hearts of the Copts after striking terror in the hearts of their Catholic allies before� 

Finally, 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�

This final bit is reminiscent of what the Islamic State/Al-Qaeda said back in 2010 after the Iraq church attack:

All Christian centres, organisations and institutions, leaders and followers, are legitimate targets for the mujahedeen (holy warriors) wherever they can reach them� Let these idolaters [Christians of the world], and at their forefront, the hallucinating tyrant of the Vatican [Pope Benedict], know that the killing sword will not be lifted from the necks of their followers until they declare their innocence from what the dog of the Egyptian Church [Pope Shenouda] is doing.

And yet, back in the real world, the well documented reality in Egypt is that Coptic Christian women are regularly abducted and forced to convert to Islam.  Thus the Islamists project their own vile practices onto Coptic Christians in order to justify killing Coptic Christians.

ISIS Targets Rome, �Nation of the Cross�, in Libya Beheading Video

�ISIS is at the door, warns Italy.�

by Ralph H. Sidway

In addition to using their savage beheadings and subsequent videos to try to �hotwire the apocalypse,� as Islam historian and Mahdi specialist Timothy Furnish calls it, in the most recent ISIS video, showing the beheading in Libya of twenty one Coptic Christian men, the narrator proclaimed an ominous goal.

According to a report by Jordan Schachtel of Breitbart News:

The Islamic State�s Al Hayat Media, the group that has published the previous beheading videos in the Middle East, produced the Libya video titled, �A Message Signed With Blood To The Nation Of The Cross.� 

�All praise is due to Allah the strong and mighty,� said an ISIS jihadist dressed in military fatigues in American-accented English. �And may blessings and peace be upon the ones sent by the sword as a mercy to all the worlds,� he added... 

After the ISIS leader finishes speaking, his fellow terrorists then commence the beheading of the 21 Egyptian Christians. �And we will conquer Rome, by Allah�s permission, the promise of our Prophet, peace be upon him,� The militant leader says after his comrades slaughter the Christian hostages.

ISIS sets it sights on Rome from Libya.

Raymond Ibrahim reports that the narrator also adds: �We will fight you until Christ descends, breaks the cross and kills the pig� (all eschatological actions ascribed to the Muslim �Christ,� Isa).

This is not the first time a Muslim group or leader has stated its intent to conquer Rome.  Rome is, after all, one of the biggest prizes for Islam, and there is a long tradition of such Islamic braggadocio, with numerous examples especially since the jihad attacks on New York and Washington D.C. of 9/11. The first Muslim to hang a bulls eye on Rome was none other than Muhammad himself, the founder of Islam, as related by the most prominent imam in the world, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi:

�The Prophet Muhammad was asked: �What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?� He answered: �The city of Hirqil [i.e. the Byzantine emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first� � that is, Constantinople�� Romiyya is the city called today �Rome,� the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered]. This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice � once from the South, from Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens.�

Just last October, Timothy Furnish reported specifically on the Islamic State�s obsession with Rome in his analysis of the group�s magazine Dabiq, Issue 4, titled �The Failed Crusade,� the cover of which depicts the black flag of ISIS flying over the Vatican:

The relevant hadiths (too long to reproduce here) are explicated thusly:  �Muslims will be at war with the Roman Christians�.the Christians of Europe and their colonies�.There will be a pause in this war due to a truce�.During this time the Muslims and Romans will fight a common enemy [presumably the �Safawis,� or Twelver Shi`is of Iran and Iraq]�.These events all lead up to the final, greatest, and bloodiest battle�al-Malhamah al-Kubra�between the Muslims and the Romans prior to the appearance of the Dajjal and the descent of al-Masih [Jesus].  This battle ends the era of the Roman Christians, as the Muslims will then advance upon Constantinople and thereafter Rome, to conquer the two cities and raise the flag of the Khilafah over them.�  But according to IS exegesis, they won�t stop there.   The new caliphate, either before the Mahdi comes or, perhaps, after his arrival, also will conquer Jerusalem and eventually �destroy the filthy house called the White House.�  Along the way the armies of jihad will �break your crosses and enslave your women.�

In June 2014, the Islamic State�s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi issued a statement calling upon all Muslims around the globe to support ISIS, promising that if they did, they would soon �conquer Rome and own the world, if Allah wills.�

But this most recent mass beheading and the threat to Rome in the ISIS Libya video is far more ominous than previous statements by al-Baghdadi and other ISIS and Muslim leaders. In this video, the ISIS narrator specifically draws attention to the geographical significance of the beheadings, declaring, �Today, we are on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message.�

They are saying, in effect, �Today, North Africa and Al Sham [Greater Syria], tomorrow Rome.� 

The big question is, will any Western leaders heed these warnings?

Coptic Victims Call on �Lord Jesus Christ� Before Slaughter

Praying the Jesus Prayer right up to the moment they were beheaded. This is the very definition of Christian Martyrdom, and these faithful men earned their crowns.

by Raymond Ibrahim, February 16, 2015

Before having their heads sliced off by the Satanic forces of the Islamic State in post �Arab Spring� Libya, some of the Coptic Christians can be seen and heard muttering �O Lord Jesus Christ,� say Arabic media.

Do not be deceived: this is a war on Christians � one that began almost 1,400 years ago, when Islam was born, and has been consistent since.

ISIS Beheadings: Hotwiring the Apocalypse One Christian Martyr At A Time

What the mass beheading of 21 Copts in Libya tells us about the Islamic State

by Timothy R. Furnish
Mahdi Watch, February 15, 2015

The Coptic Christians immediately before being martyred for Christ.

Major news outlets are reporting, today, the mass beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians by the Islamic State affiliate in Libya.

The Ottomans beheaded tens of thousands of Georgian

Christians who stubbornly, and heroically,

clung to their Christian faith.

In my 2005 Middle East Quarterly article, �Beheading in the Name of Islam,� I wrote that �the purpose of terrorism is to strike fear into the hearts of opponents in order to win political concession[s].�  Then I went on to spend much of the article explicating the legitimately Islamic roots (Qur�anic rubrics, precedents by Muhammad, examples from Islamic history, exegesis by Muslim scholars) of decapitating  �non-believers��especially Christians, the primary political and military adversaries of Islamic expansion over the last 14 centuries.

The Islamic State has upped the ante with its regular beheadings of Christians by IS central and, now, its far-flung branches.  Seen in light of incessant calls for recruits, and even more vociferous citations of apocalyptic hadiths�both of which are clearly explained in the many issues of �Dabiq� magazine�I now think that ISIS cares not one whit about political concessions.  Rather, it chops off Christians� heads for three primary reasons: 1) to reinforce its literalist Islamic credentials;  2) to win over young Muslims, particularly men, and persuade them of Islamic State�s power and dedication; and 3) to provoke the �Christian� West, particularly the United States (the world�s most populous Christian nation), into deploying ground troops�which ISIS is certain it will defeat, based on the group�s adherence to this eschatological hadith.

Metrics indicate that Christians, despite being the world�s largest religious group, are the most-persecuted�and particularly in majority-Muslim areas.  This should come as no surprise to anyone who had read the Qur�an, the biographies of Muhammad, or studied much Islamic history, because all three are rife with bitter condemnations  of Christianity, as well as examples of deadly attacks upon Christians.   

(Stylized) Ottomans (again!) beheading 800

Catholics in Otranto (Italy) who refused to convert. 

And Islamic civilization is unique today in that it is the only one on the planet in which violence against non- adherents (or, sometimes, even differing brands of its own devotees) is justified by both state (Sunni and Shi`i)  and non-state actors (ISIS, al-Qa`idah, Boko Haram, TTP, Kata�ib Hizbullah, etc.).   Beheading, which seemed so horrifically novel 13 years ago when AQ used it to kill Daniel Pearl, is now a rather routine instrument in the Islamic terrorist toolbox against such.  Muslim authorities, for all their condemnations thereof, will find it difficult to lock this dreadful chest, considering its hallowed tradition in Islamic thought and praxis.   That leaves the option of sending beheaders to meet Allah�or, much more likely, Iblis.  President Obama seems content to simply, gradually �degrade� the Islamic State.  At least we might take some solace in thinking that this minimalist approach will allow Islamic beheadings to create more Christian martyrs.   But they, and we, would probably be better off if the most powerful man in the world were less loathe to wield the sword of punishment.