Libyans Face Death Penalty for Converting to Christianity

February 15 marked the tenth anniversary of the execution of 20 Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian by the Islamic State (IS) on a beach in Libya.

In 2015, ISIS uploaded a YouTube video, entitled “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross”. 20 Coptic Christians and a Ghanaian Christian dressed in orange jumpsuits were marched along a Libyan beach by their captors, their soon-to-be executors. The men were given one final chance to renounce their faith before they were beheaded.

The human rights organization Open Doors reported:

When IS beheaded the 21 men, they were denied a proper burial. Their bodies were discarded in a mass grave. Three years later, one of the captured militants revealed the location where the martyrs had been hidden, and their remains were finally returned to Egypt. A church was built in their hometown to honour their memory. Their bodies now rest inside, along with their portraits and testimonies.

Most Coptic Christians from Egypt who lived and worked in Libya have since returned to their home countries. This trend escalated following the 2015 massacre, followed by another ISIS massacre of 30 Ethiopian Christians in April 2015.

Libya’s current population is 6,812,000; approximately 35,500 Christians remain there (0.5% of the population). Yet this tiny Christian community is exposed to severe persecution.

In Libya, converting to Christianity is a crime punishable by death. For instance, a Christian convert from a Muslim background received a death sentence in September 2022. He remains imprisoned while his case is pending with the Supreme Court.

In March 2023, at least six Libyan Christians from a Muslim background were also arrested. The authorities tried to force them (under torture) to recant their faith. At the same time, two American Christians were arrested and forcibly expelled from the country following accusations of proselytizing.

The main Christian groups in Libya currently consist of Sub-Saharan migrants and some Egyptian Copts. Open Doors reports that all Coptic Orthodox churches in the country have been destroyed or abandoned. The remaining Sub-Saharan African Christians are doubly vulnerable to persecution and discrimination based on race and religion.

There are few church buildings that remain standing in Libya. They remain vulnerable targets for an attack, especially by Islamic groups.

Virtually all Muslims in Libya belong to Sunni Islam. Sharia law is upheld throughout the country. Muslim converts to Christianity face violent pressure from family, their community and the government to renounce their new faith. Hence, most Libyan nationals who are Christians keep their faith secret.

Homes where Christians live and the small shops that they run are vulnerable to being targeted by criminal groups, radical Islamic groups, and even government officials.

As in most Muslim countries, converting from Islam brings massive social pressure and converts are always most at risk first from their families. Libyan Christians are often afraid to meet with other Christians since any kind of non-Islamic religious gathering, including worship at churches, is forbidden for Libyans.

Depending on the region, migrants may gather in (house) churches but doing so exposes them to serious security risks; thus, many stay away out of fear. Even so, they still face threats of kidnapping and other forms of abuse.

Bringing Arabic Christian literature and Bibles into the country is strictly forbidden. Proselytizing or missionary activity among Muslims is officially prohibited.

According to the research conducted by Open Doors, in Libya, in recent years,

• Both convert and migrant Christians in Libya have been detained for faith-related reasons. Tribal groups, as well as government officials (who are often connected to radical Islamic groups or militias), are responsible for such detentions.
• Several church buildings and other places of Christian worship have experienced being attacked. They are often demolished or damaged.
• Several Sub-Saharan African Christians have been kidnapped for ransom.
• Several Christian migrants (mostly from Sub-Saharan African countries) held in detention centers in Libya have reportedly been raped and beaten.
• Slavery, forced labor and human trafficking are still widespread despite an international outcry in 2017 when CNN showed video evidence of an auction of Sub-Saharan Africans. Many of the Sub-Saharan African migrants are Christian.
• Women have a lower position within Libyan family life than men, caused by tribal norms corresponding to Sharia.
• If suspected of being interested in Christianity, a Libyan woman can face house arrest, sexual assault, forced marriage or even death.
• Christian migrant women crossing Libya are also vulnerable to abduction and trafficking, especially when separated from their male companions, such as is common at migrant detention centers. They are reported to have been forced into prostitution.
• Women often experience sexual violence because of their faith, sometimes as a form of punishment. They encounter social and cultural barriers to the prosecution of any offense.
• Christian men face loss of employment, physical and mental abuse, and eviction from their family home.
• Libyan men and boys have been increasingly forced to fight in militias, causing many to flee their hometowns to evade such a fate.

Libya is currently divided between two governments: the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli and a government in Benghazi under the protection of Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF).

Parliamentary and presidential elections were originally planned for 2021 but were indefinitely postponed after major disagreements erupted between all political factions.

Representatives of both the Eastern-based House of Representatives and Western-based High Council of State are now working on a new election framework, but it is unlikely that any major faction will agree to ceding power.

“Having just one central government controlling the whole of Libya would seem to be the only way to end the lawlessness in the country… But whatever the outcome, the situation for converts from Islam to Christianity will remain very sensitive and insecure,” notes Open Doors.

It is not only Christians who are subject to severe abuse in Libya. Ibadi and Sufi Muslims in Libya who do not belong to the Sunni Islamic traditions also face violations in the form of violent attacks by Sunni militant groups. They also face general discrimination in society. In addition, atheists and those who openly question Sunni Islamic doctrine are very much at risk.

Libya, however, was once a majority-Christian land.

The area of North Africa which has been known as Libya since 1911 was part of the Roman, then later the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, between 146 BC and 643 AD.

The name of the country comes from the Ancient Greek Λιβύη “Libue” which, at the time, referred to the continent of Africa in general.

In ancient times, Greeks, Assyrians and Persians, among others, ruled parts of Libya. The Greeks left profound traces in ancient Libya. Cyrene, for instance, was an ancient Greek city in Libya, founded in 631 BC by a community of Greek emigrants from the island of Thera in the Aegean.

Cyrene became one of the great intellectual centres of the classical world, providing a medical school. There were renowned scholars such as the geographer Eratosthenes, and the philosopher Aristippus, founder of the Cyrenaics.

In 96 BC Cyrenaica came under Roman rule and in 67 BC was united with Crete to form a senatorial province, with Cyrene as local capital. With the Roman conquest, the entire region of present-day Libya became part of the Roman Empire.

The territory of modern Libya had separate histories until Roman times, as Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The origins of Christianity in Libya are also ancient because its foundation is attributed by many historians to the Evangelist Saint Mark.

Professor Thomas C. Oden writes:

From about A.D. 68 till the Muslim conquest of A.D. 643, Libya housed a vibrant, creative Christian community that contributed to the shape of the faith even as we know it today. By the mid-190s A.D., Leptis Magna could claim favorite sons as the Roman pontiff, Victor the African, and as the Roman emperor, Septimius Severus. A rich and energetic community produced a wide variety of key players from early martyrs to great thinkers to arch-heretics.

The brightest period of Roman Libya was under emperor Septimius Severus, born in Leptis Magna.

“Leptis Magna was enlarged and embellished by Septimius Severus, who was born there and later became emperor. It was one of the most beautiful cities of the Roman Empire, with its imposing public monuments, harbour, market-place, storehouses, shops and residential districts,” says UNESCO.

Tragically, this civility was not to last. North Africa was invaded by Arab armies in the seventh century. That’s when its downfall began – alongside the process of violent Arabization and Islamization.

What is left today of the once Roman, Greek, Christian Libya? A country in perpetual war, ruined by Islamic barbarians.

Once a heartland for Christianity, Libya has become a country known for the persecution of not only its tiny Christian minority but also other non-Muslims. It is one of the world centres of terrorism.

Schoolchildren across the non-Muslim world should be taught about the true history of Islamization and the destruction it has brought to numerous, magnificent civilisations.