Friday, February 19, 2016

21 CHRISTIANS BEHEADED BY ISLAMIC STATE TERRORISTS IN EGYPT



Madrid, 16 Feb. 15 / 9:27 am (ACI)– Islamic State (IS) released a video on Sunday that shows the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians in Egypt, who had been kidnapped between December and January. 

The five-minute video released Sunday night entitled “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross” depicts 21 Egyptian Christians dressed in orange suits kneeled beside a group of members of the Islamic State.

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 on the south of Rome, on the land of Islam, Libya, sending another message.”

The video ends showing a bloody sea. “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood. 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 and Wafa Cinstantine, who Islamists believe had converted to Islam and were detained by the Coptic Church because of it.

In the video we can see how several of the Christians pray before being killed, while one of their executioners calls them crusaders.

The President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi announced a seven-day period of national mourning for the assassination of the Coptic Christians, who represent a 10 percent minority of the population of the country, and called for an urgent meeting with the country's top security body.

"We have seen the painful video and we can say with conviction that the dead are our abducted children”, Coptic Church spokesman Bolis Halim told the official Middle East News Agency.

“We are certain that our nation will not rest until the criminals receive the rightful punishment”, he added.



Source of information: Blog CATOLICIDAD http://www.catolicidad.com/2016/02/terroristas-del-estado-islamico.html. Translated from Spanish by Fabiola Lozano.