We confirmed Sunday that ISIS in Libya beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians. You would expect several leaders of governments in the “Christian world” would have, at the least named it Christian persecution and responded with force. All, pointed led by self declared Christian President Obama, did not. While Obama golfed his White House released a statement saying,
- The United States condemns the despicable and cowardly murder of twenty-one Egyptian citizens in Libya by ISIL-affiliated terrorists.
- ISIL’s barbarity knows no bounds. It is unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity.
- This wanton killing of innocents is just the most recent of the many vicious acts perpetrated by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against the people of the region.
Astonishing; staggering; stunning! We were told by ISIS in Libya they were killed because they were Christians. The American government needed to acknowledge that and condemn it with action as well as words. It is obviously not ISIS in Libya that is cowardly it is President Obama and his administration that is cowardly. “[U]nconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity,” is a lie that 100% opposite from the truth. The Islamic State and its spinoffs, like ISIS in Libya, are driven by faith, sect, and ethnicity. The pitiful euphemistic “The people of the region” would be Christians, Jews, Kurds and enemy Islamic sects.
ABC quoted unnamed U.S. officials on the situation:
Counter-terrorism officials have expressed deep concern about ISIS asserting itself in Libya, where the U.S. is still reeling from the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a diplomatic post in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya.
“They pretty much own Libya,” an official involved in counter-terrorism operations told ABC News recently. “We have zero collection there and zero authorities there.”
Another official referred to aspirational ISIS-produced maps showing their black jihadi flag representing the caliphate — which was declared last summer by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — enveloping much of the Middle East, Europe and North Africa and obliterating traditional borders. Their broad ambition is being realized in certain areas, the official said.
In contrast to President Obama, Egyptian (Muslim) President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi acted. He immediately banned all travel by Egyptian citizens to Libya, promised to evacuate all Egyptians who are currently in the country.
He also said he would send his foreign minister to New York, calling for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting about how to respond to ISIS actions in Libya.
President el-Sisi launched military action yesterday while the American President was still golfing:
CNN: Egypt’s military carried out a series of airstrikes against ISIS militants in Libya on Monday in retaliation for the slaughter of 21 Egyptian Christians by the jihadist group.
The bombing raids pulled Egypt deeper into the widening international fight against ISIS and highlighted the extremists’ growing presence in North Africa.
The warplanes hit 10 targets used for training and storage in ISIS’ Libyan stronghold of Derna, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told CNN.
The Storm is Coming
Christian leaders reacted by Sunday. Examples notably include these powerful statements:
Pope Francis said, “Their only words were, ‘Jesus, help me!’ They were killed simply for the fact that they were Christians. The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out be heard. It makes no difference whether they be Catholics, Orthodox, Copts or Protestants… The martyrs belong to all Christians.”
Dr. Franklin Graham posted on Facebook, “The militant Islamic terrorist group ISIS has released a video called A MESSAGE SIGNED WITH BLOOD TO THE NATION OF THE CROSS showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians who had been kidnapped in Libya. Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians? Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world? As we mourn with the families of those 21 martyrs, we’d better take this warning seriously as these acts of terror will only spread throughout Europe and the United States. If this concerns you like it does me, share this. The storm is coming.”
Pope Francis has already dealt with martyrs beheaded from Islamic Jihad slaughter on a grand scale:
St. Antonio Primaldo and his 812 companions were martyred by beheading in 1480 in the southeastern Italian city of Otranto, then a town of 6,000.
Two weeks before their martyrdom, 15,000 Ottoman Turks attacked the town in 140 ships; when the Spanish troops guarding the city retreated to Tuscany, the Turks began their siege. Following heroic resistance by the inhabitants, the invaders captured and plundered Otranto and killed the archbishop, priests, canons, and many lay faithful who had gathered in the cathedral. The surviving women and children were enslaved; males of age 15 or older were told they would live if they converted to Islam. A humble tailor or cobbler, St. Antonio Primaldo, spoke on behalf of them all: he said that they “confessed Jesus Christ as Son of God” and “would wish to die a thousand times rather than renounce Him and become Turks.”
“They refused to deny their faith and died professing the Risen Christ,” Pope Francis preached during the Mass of canonization. “Where did they find the strength to stay faithful? In the faith itself, which enables us to see beyond the limits of our human sight, beyond the boundaries of earthly life.”
This existential religious war is a fast moving picture and we are politically leaderless
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf made this flat declaration Monday, “We cannot win this war by killing [ISIS]; We can’t kill our way out of this war.” Her (the administration’s) solution is the ‘lack of opportunity for jobs’ in the Middle East should be [our] focus.
As if in response, Islamic State fighters burned 45 people to death in the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi early today, according to the local police chief. This is just five miles away from the Ain al-Asad air base where 320 US Marines stationed. These are not equipped for combat. They are training members of the Iraqi army’s 7th Division.
We just got this Libyan Herald report that at least 35 Egyptians have been kidnapped in what appears to be a round-up at various locations in areas controlled by Ansar Al-Sharia and ISIS.
The paper was told that starting this morning, in the wake of the attack on Derna by warplanes from Egypt, Egyptian nationals, many of them it seems farm workers, have been picked up by gunmen. The first reports were that seven men had been seized, but by mid-afternoon, it was being said that at least 35 had been reported missing.
The Telegraph just reported the Islamic State is “planning a takeover of Libya as a “gateway” to wage war across the whole of southern Europe, letters written by the group’s supporters have revealed.”
And here at home, in Melbourne, FL Vandals, impersonating Islamic terrorists, set fire at the New Shiloh Christian Church and spray painted ‘Allahu Akbar’ on an auxiliary building. Who could have guessed? Certainly not President Obama.
Ironically President Obama’s “Countering violent extremism” conference kicked off a few hours later in Washington. The White House insisted, “[W]e are not treating these people as part of a religion.” They call it “smart policy.”
But let us not overlook a bright—really cool— note:
While thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past months to join the Islamic State, a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.
The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha – meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq.
The Patriot's Trumpet 