Shoebat.com reported in February 2015 how twenty-one Christians were beheaded by ISIS. The story made international news, and the video was shown around the world. The government of Libya has just announced that they have found the exact location where the martyrdom took place.
Libya has announced the exact location where 21 Christians were martyred by ISIS on Sirte Beach. Officials had located the site in October 2017, where they extracted the bodies after arresting one of the participants in the massacre.
The announcement comes just days after opposition forces announced that they have taken control of Sirte, a city which was previously controlled by forces aligned with the UN-backed Government of National Accord. The GNA is also backed by Turkey, who recently announced that they would be increasing their military activities in Libya. The opposition forces who are now in control of Sirte belong to Libya’s National Army (LNA), controlled by Gen. Haftar. The LNA announced that they have liberated Sirte from terrorism, after which the authorities made a public visit to the site where the 21 were martyred.
The Christians, 20 of whom were Egyptian, were kidnapped and beheaded by ISIS on the Sirte Beach in 2015. The impact of this incident was felt across the entire region and came at a time when ISIS was at the height of committing genocide against the Middle East’s Christians. The recent announcement by Libya is part of an emerging trend in the region of past persecution incidents being used by governing authorities to advance or justify their own political interests, without actually taking any significant steps to address the underlying drivers of persecution. (source)
The answer as to why the persecution happened is clear, and not hard to understand. The persecution was a direct result of US policies, specifically Operation Timber Sycamore, that is an extension of the ‘stay-behind’ operations of the cold war. In this way the US backed, trained, and supported Islamic terrorist groups with the purpose of creating a barrier against the USSR and now Russia throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.
The plan was in its purpose ‘effective’, but it came at a very high cost, which has been the genocide of Christians throughout the world, especially in Iraq and eastern Syria. Egyptian Christians have suffered too, such as these Coptic martyrs.
One cannot separate the chaos today caused by Islam from government support of Islam for selfish reasons. Just like how one may criticize the Taliban, one cannot separate the existence of the Taliban from Operation Cyclone in which the CIA made the Taliban and encouraged terrorism in order to draw the Russians into a “Vietnam-style” conflict.
If one thinks the Russians are just innocent either, one only needs to look into the Soviet support of many dictators and evil terrorist groups, such as Idi Amin Dada or the Sandinistas.
The problem with “terror” groups is not just Islam, although that is a major issue. Islam is evil, but the power of Islam could not exist without the US and USSR as well as France, Germany, and the UK with open checkbooks writing as many checks as fast as they can to these groups to buy weapons so they can fight with each other for power game in which everybody loses.
If terrorism is a part of government policy, then one must also argue that the persecution of Christians is a part of it, especially if doing it is considered to be politically expedient. This is the reason why although it is good for Christians to work with governments, as governments come from people, one must acknowledge that Christianity is never wholly part of any government or any people, but sits between them and partakes of both while remaining separate from them. To wholly associate Christianity with one or the other is to make the error of descending into tribalistic warfare and the religion of ‘blood-and-soil’, where political and social human conflicts become a sort of ‘war of the gods’ just like in ancient times, but with modern weapons.
Do not trust any government- especially the US and the Russians -because neither government has the ‘right’ answer, and as long as both continue to support evil ideas such as terrorist groups and actively hurt innocent people for power gain without any regard to the consequences of their actions, one cannot believe that what they support today may not become the object of persecution tomorrow. To use a famous case, one may recall that Gengrikh Yagoda, of of the major architects of the GULAG system and the Holodomor in Ukraine, was eventually executed by the very state he loved, and he begged for mercy and declared his loyalty to the Soviet cause has his own ‘friends’ casually put him to death.
One must put truth and faith first, for if this is not he object and base of all of what one believes, then one can be lead astray by those with evil ideas into error.
The men who were murdered by ISIS terrorists certainly died out of hatred for Christ. But perhaps those who hate these Christians more are not even these terrorists, but the ones who gave them the weapons, knowing what they would do, and let it happen anyways, for while it is evil, a genuine dislike of a person or wrong belief has the hope of being corrected, but not so much callous indifference to human suffering, where being neither ‘hot nor cold’ and simply apathetic, one does what one wills for his benefit without the care of those who may suffer.
Jesus Christ is King
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