By Michael W. Chapman
The Islamic State beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians over the weekend,
propping the severed heads on the victims’ backs, a barbaric slaughter
that led Reverend Franklin Graham to ask, “Can you imagine the outcry if
21 Muslims had been beheaded by Christians?”
“Where is the universal condemnation by Muslim leaders around the world?” he asked.
The brutal killing of the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, who had been
abducted in Libya by members of the Islamic State, was videotaped and
the entire death film was posted online on Sunday, Feb. 15. It is
entitled, “A Message Signed With Blood, To The Nation of the Cross.”
In a Facebook post
on Feb. 16, Rev. Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association, said, “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 the 21 Egyptian Christians who had
been kidnapped in Libya.”
“Can you imagine the outcry if 21 Muslims had been beheaded by
Christians?” said Rev. Graham.
“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,” warned Rev. Graham.
“If this concerns you like it does me, share this,” he said. “The storm is coming.”
In a statement published in their propaganda magazine, Dabiq, the Islamic State said
that in the murder of the 21 Christians it is “important for Muslims
everywhere to know that there is no doubt in the great reward to be
found on Judgment Day for those who spill the blood of these Coptic
crusaders wherever they may be found ....”
The Dabiq article accuses the Copts, an Orthodox Christian minority
dating back to the first century church, of being followers of Pope
Shenouda III – head of the church from 1971 until his death in 2012 –
and of “the taghut [idolator] Sisi,” a reference to President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who is also reviled by Islamists.
In addition to his work at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association,
Franklin Graham, son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, is
president of the international relief group Samaritan’s Purse. Rev.
Franklin Graham frequently speaks out against the dangers of radical
Islam and sharia (Islamic law).
The Islamic State video of the killing can be viewed here. WARNING, the video shows explicit and graphic violence.
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