Egypt’s Claim of Killing Suspected Executioners of Christian Suspicious
The Egyptian government didn’t bother to say on what date the three members of the Islamic State affiliate in the North Sinai were killed in a gun battle in the Abtal area, a convenient omission since it’s also unclear when Coptic Christian businessman Nabil Habashi Salama was dead. The video was released on April 18, and the government statement was released the next day.
The Egyptian government didn’t bother to say on what date the three members of the Islamic State affiliate in the North Sinai were killed in a gun battle in the Abtal area, a convenient omission since it’s also unclear when Coptic Christian businessman Nabil Habashi Salama was dead. The video was released on April 18, and the government statement was released the next day.
The government claimed three other suspects involved in the execution escaped. Terrorist and government assertions are difficult to verify as media access is restricted in the restive North Sinai. However, if the Egyptian government’s claim that three jihadists were killed is valid, it also raises the question of why security forces couldn’t rescue Salama before he was executed.
When Salama was kidnapped in the coastal town of Bir al-Abd in the North Sinai in early November, it wasn’t clear who had done it or why. Was he perceived as a well-off businessman whose family could pay a ransom? Is a Christian to be despised for his part in leading the construction of a church building? Or perhaps they thought his Coptic Orthodox denomination was rich enough to pay a ransom.
The three unmasked men who seized Salama off the street in Bir al Abd had to steal a vehicle to make their get-away, which seemed a bit less sophisticated than a typical IS operation.
The reasons for his execution became more apparent with the video’s release. His son told Coptic Orthodox leaders that while in captivity, his father had told him he was kidnapped for his role in building the churches of St. Mary, St. Karas, and St. Abanoub in Bir al-Abd, according to a tweet by a church bishop.
“He poured his heart and soul into this church and always said, ‘Do not think that I am building this church for here; I am building for myself a home in heaven,'” the bishop reported Peter Salama telling him. “In their efforts to have him abandon the faith, they humiliated my father and broke all his teeth to torture him. Yet, through all this, we are so joyful for him.”
In the video, one of three IS terrorists standing with rifles behind the kneeling Salama says, “We thank the great Allah who ordered his followers to kill, and the kafirs [apostates] to be subjugated until they pay the Jizya while down on their knees. This is a message to Crusaders in every spot on earth: As you fight, you will be fought, and as you capture, you will be captured.”
Then the militant, using a derogatory term for Christians, addresses Egyptian Christians, saying, “This is your reward for supporting the Egyptian army,” and shoots Salama in the head, killing him, according to Egyptian newspaper Watani.
As the Egyptian military has waged a campaign against IS in the Sinai, the Islamic extremist militants see Coptic Christians as supporting the Egyptian army, even as some Copts lament indifference by the government and security forces’ lack of effectiveness; critics say the government could have rescued Salama long ago.
In the video, the jihadists also kill two Bedouin tribe members accused of fighting with the military. The Bedouins have provided intelligence on jihadist militants to the military and police.
The Coptic Orthodox archbishop, in his tweet, quotes Salama’s son as saying, “We are currently telling our kids that their grandfather is now a saint in the highest places of heaven. The ISIS militants used to contact me when my father was kidnapped, and, though I knew he said this under pressure, he would say, ‘All is fine, thanks to God.’ He explained that the militants wanted to enforce the Jizya tax on Christians and that he was kidnapped due to his efforts in building the church.”
The Jizya, a koranic protection “tax” on Christians and non-Muslims, grants the right to practice another religion but is used to subdue them as second-class citizens.
“It was heartbreaking to see the execution of my father,” Peter Salama told Watani, adding that since his father’s execution, he has received threats from IS terrorists. “He had never done anything wrong; in fact, he loved to serve everyone and was loved by all in Bir al-Abd.”
Earlier in the 13-minute video, Salama is made to look like a man confessing a crime as he admits he was responsible for building the Coptic Orthodox Church in Bir al-Abd and, in a coerced statement, says that his “church is cooperating with the Egyptian army and intelligence’s war on the Islamic State.”
‘He Died a Great Man’
Salama-owned shops selling mobile phones, garments, and jewelry in Bir al-Abd
Islamic extremists who have long terrorized the Sinai ramped up violence in 2013 after the army deposed President Mohamed Morsi, an Islamist of the Muslim Brotherhood, as part of a popular uprising. Christians were among IS’s favorite targets for torture and murder.
