Daesh (Islamic State) murders Ethiopian Christians in Libya

Today the New York Times reported on a video by Daesh (the Islamic State) allegedly of the murder of Ethiopian Christians in Libya.  

During the last five minutes of the half-hour video, the footage cuts back and forth between scenes in the southern desert and a beach along the coast, at one point displaying both with a split screen. Both settings were filmed with the same sophisticated camera angles and editing that has distinguished other Islamic State films from indigenous Libyan videos. 

Masked fighters lead a row of bound captives dressed in black into the desert and then shoot each of the prisoners in the back of the head. Another group of masked fighters leads a row of prisoners in orange jumpsuits along a beach and then beheads each of them with a long knife, placing the severed heads on the bodies lying on the sand as bloody surf washes over them. 

“You will not have safety even in your dreams, until you accept Islam,” declares a masked figure, speaking English with an American accent and pointing a revolver toward the camera. “To the nation of the cross: We are back again.”

In February of this year, Daesh murdered 21 Coptic Christians in Libya. When I was in the Old City of Jerusalem last month with a friend, we went up to the roof of the Holy Sepulcher, where the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate is located. A banner lamenting the deaths of the Coptic martyrs was strung across the way.