tigray 4

Once again, in 2015, ISIS orchestrated and filmed... 

the dramatic mass killing of African Christians who refused to deny their faith. This time, the approximately 28 men targeted by the Libya affiliate of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, also known as Daesh,  were Ethiopian Christians. 

In February, the killing of 21 mostly Egyptian Christians drew widespread horror and fears of future massacres, but also led to Egypt's largest Bible outreach. 

Ethiopia is Africa's second most-populated country, and approximately two-thirds of its 90 million people are Christians. Many have moved to Libya, where they found work, or are waiting to board a migrant ship to reach Europe.

Abba Kaletsidk Mulugeta, an Orthodox Church official, believes the victims were likely migrants, seeking work or a passage to Europe, according to the Daily Mail.

Bishop Angaelos, the general bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK, underscored [benadrukt, onderstreept] the Ethiopians’ testimony: “Once again we see innocent Christians murdered purely for refusing to renounce their faith,” he said in a statement.

"As Christians, we remain committed to our initial instinct, following the murder of our 21 Coptic brothers in Libya, that it is not only for our own good, but indeed our duty to ourselves, the world, and even those who see themselves as our enemies, to forgive and pray for the perpetrators of this and similar crimes," he said. 

"We pray for these men and women, self-confessed [zelfverklaarde] religious people, that they may be reminded of the sacred and precious nature of every life created by God.”

More than 40 percent...

of immigrants to the European Union are Christians...

—the largest population of any religious group, according to the Pew Research Center. 

Christianity Today (CT) previously noted that many of the 250 migrants who drowned crossing the Mediterranean in 2013 were African Christians fleeing persecution. 

Thousands of Ethiopians have immigrated to the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, in search of work, though many have faced later deportations or abuse. Last December, 70 Ethiopians drowned after their boat capsized off the coast of Yemen. None of the Christians thrown overboard last week by fellow Muslims migrants however were Ethiopian.

CT reported nonetheless how Egypt's Bible Society turned the previous 21 martyrs in Libya into a Bible tract that is rivaling the Bible for circulation, as well as how Christian forgiveness has gone viral in the Arab world. 

[bron]