Milad Malak, a 20-year-old Christian from Egypt, was killed in Libya after he refused demands from Islamic State fighters to deny Jesus and convert to Islam. Open Doors said Malak was the only Christian among Egyptian workers held by the militants, citing two Muslim friends who were held with him and later released.
The men had traveled from Sebarbay, Malak’s home village in Egypt’s northern Gharbia governorate, to Libya for work. They reached Zliten, on Libya’s Mediterranean coast, after leaving Egypt on Sept. 2. ISIS fighters seized them on the morning of Oct. 4.
The captors abused the men and demanded money for their release. The two friends were freed after their families paid $4,700, and both are now receiving medical treatment in Egypt. Malak’s sister, Madonna Malek, said the family also paid a ransom, but the kidnappers kept him because he was a Christian and used violence to pressure him to convert.
International Christian Concern said Malak told his captors, “Even if you cut me into pieces, I would never renounce my faith.” His family learned of his death from the two friends and asked the Egyptian government to press for his body to be returned. Relatives and other Christians gathered on Oct. 28 to mourn him and honor his life. Malak served as a deacon at a Coptic church in Sebarbay.
Libya is No. 9 on Open Doors’ World Watch List of the most dangerous countries for Christians. Open Doors and International Christian Concern connected Malak’s death to the 2015 ISIS killing of 20 Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian man in Libya after they refused to renounce their faith. Their deaths, and Malak’s, show that religious liberty is not only a legal principle. For many Christians around the world, faithfulness to Christ still carries the threat of death.
