ISIS, not satisfied with targeting and slaughtering Christians in Iraq and Syria, has now turned to eradicating another Christian population: the Coptic Christians in Egypt.
The Egyptian branch of ISIS, Waliyat Sinai, is murdering Christians in the northern part of the Sinai desert, prompting 100 out of 160 Christian families in northern Sinai to flee, according to Reuters.
Last week it was reported that a Christian man, Saad Hana, 65, and his son Medhat, 45, were murdered in El-Arish. Father Youssef Sobhy, a cleric of the Coptic Church in El-Arish, told International Christian Concern that three masked men knocked on Saad Hana’s door, shot him to death when he answered, then burned the home with his son in it.
ISIS had just released a video warning that Christians were now the “favorite prey” of Waliyat Sinai. The video was titled Kill all the Kufar (an Arab expression for “non-believers”).
In the video, Abu Abdallah al-Masri, who is allegedly responsible for killing 28 Christians who died in an ISIS bombing attack on a Coptic church in Cairo last December, ranted of “the martyrdom operation” against “infidels” and “apostates . . . Oh, crusaders in Egypt, this attack that struck you in your temple is just the first with many more to come, God willing.”
Christians in the Sinai say ISIS is posting online death lists threatening Copts to leave or to die.
“Oh, crusaders in Egypt, this attack that struck you in your temple is just the first with many more to come, God willing.”
Abu Abdallah al-Masri of ISIS
The fleeing Christians have traveled to Ismailia, about 75 miles east of Cairo, according to Nabil Shukrallah of the city’s Evangelical Church. The Times of Israel reports, “Families arrive scared and in need of supplies, which are being stockpiled at the church via donations from several parishes, he said. They are then transported to be housed in and around the city, in private homes and now also accommodation provided by the government.”
