These are the names of twenty one human persons.
Each name indicates a human face, a human life, interwoven with the lives of other humans: family and loved ones, communities, a people, a history.
These twenty one human persons died on February 13, 2015. I want to devote this space, today, to their names.
They deserve the honor of their names. They are the names of men, of our brothers:
2. Abanub Ayad Atiya
3. Maged Solaiman Shehata
4. Yusuf Shukry Yunan
5. Kirollos Shokry Fawzy
6. Bishoy Astafanus Kamel
7. Somaily Astafanus Kamel
8. Malak Ibrahim Sinweet
9. Tawadros Yusuf Tawadros
10. Girgis Milad Sinweet
11. Mina Fayez Aziz
12. Hany Abdelmesih Salib
13. Bishoy Adel Khalaf
14. Samuel Alham Wilson
15. Worker from Awr village
16. Ezat Bishri Naseef
17. Loqa Nagaty
18. Gaber Munir Adly
19. Esam Badir Samir
20. Malak Farag Abram
21. Sameh Salah Faruq
These men were killed in Libya, along the shore of the Mediterranean sea, because they were members of Egypt's ancient Coptic Christian Church. Their enemies called them, "the people of the cross."
Their killers distributed videos and images around the world of their brutal murder, because the killers want to foment hatred, division, and fear among the peoples of the Middle East and around the world. They want to advertise for their own ideological agenda.
Their killers distributed videos and images around the world of their brutal murder, because the killers want to foment hatred, division, and fear among the peoples of the Middle East and around the world. They want to advertise for their own ideological agenda.
But we don't need their images, and we will not be driven to fear or hatred.
We Christians already have an image for the death our brothers died, and this image assures us that death has already been defeated, that death does not have the last word.
We Christians already have an image for the death our brothers died, and this image assures us that death has already been defeated, that death does not have the last word.
Love has the last word.
