Voice of the Martyrs: Six Christians Face Potential Death Penalties
(The Guardian) Six Libyans are facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity and proselytizing under laws increasingly being used to silence civil society and human rights organizations, say activists.
The women and men – some from Libya’s minority ethnic groups, including the Amazigh, or Berbers, in the west of the country – were separately detained in March by security forces. A US citizen was arrested by Libya’s Internal Security Agency (ISA) last month, but was released and is understood to have left the country.
The six Libyans have been charged under article 207 of the penal code, which punishes any attempt to circulate views that aim to “alter fundamental constitutional principles, or the fundamental structures of the social order”, or overthrow the state, and anyone who possess books, leaflets, drawings, slogans “or any other items” that promote their cause.
The ISA said in a statement that the arrests were to “stop an organized gang action aiming to solicit and to make people leave Islam”. A lawyer for one of the detainees said their families discovered they had been arrested when videos of their confessions were posted online by the ISA.
One of the videos showed Seyfao Madi, an engineer and father of one child, confessing that he converted to Christianity in 2017 and had tried to convert others. His face unclear in the video, Madi said: “I was born in 1977 and I was arrested by the Internal Security Unit for converting to Christianity. I joined a group of Libyans and foreigners inside Libya calling and circulating for Christianity.
“In 2016 my friend introduced me to other friends, among them a Christian from the US. We talked and discussed … then I converted the next year and he baptized me.”
A lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons, said he renounced his Christian faith under torture.
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Unfortunately, with Libya’s track record (they killed 20 Christians in 2015) there’s a good possibility they’ll go through with it in this case as well.
This section is from a piece about Christianity in Libya I found at Notre Dame’s Under Caesar’s Sword website:
“Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya as a dictator for over forty years, until his death in 2011. Although technically Christianity was subject to regulations and restrictions during this time, most of these laws—such as those that prohibited Bibles and other religious materials from entering Libya—were unenforced. In fact, Christians report very little religious-inspired discrimination in employment, housing, or everyday life under Gaddafi’s rule. On occasions of religious festivities such as Palm Sunday, Copts would even have processions on the streets without any expressed objection from the Libyan community.”
I’m so glad the US along with the rest of NATO destroyed Libya in 2011 for…ahem… “reasons”… /s
It reminds me of this quote: “It says here in this history book that luckily, the good guys have won every single time. What are the odds?”
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