Churches condemn massacre of Coptic Christians

#1038 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 22 Feb 2015

The NSW Council of Churches has strongly condemned the reported massacre of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

A gruesome video was released by ISIL last Sunday purporting to show the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians kidnapped earlier this year from the coastal town of Sirte in eastern Lybia.

Council President, the Reverend Dr Ross Clifford, said church leaders stood in solidarity with their Coptic brothers and sisters, and lent their prayer support to the Coptic community at this time of deep suffering and loss.

Dr Clifford also called for appropriate action by the Australian government in response to this latest atrocity committed by religiously motivated terrorists, including strategic responses by the United Nations Security Council to curb the expansion of Islamic State forces, and an increase in the number of Coptic Christians permitted to emigrate to Australia on the grounds of religious persecution.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.