A 20-year-old Egyptian Christian has been killed by Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Libya after reportedly refusing to give up his faith in Jesus Christ and convert to Islam.
The young man, Milad Malak, was the only Christian among a group of Egyptian workers captured by ISIS. Two Muslim friends who were held with him and later released told Open Doors about the ordeal.
According to their accounts, the militants tortured Malak for several days and threatened to kill him unless he became a Muslim. He refused to abandon Christianity and is believed to have been killed after resisting their demands.
International Christian Concern (ICC), a US-based organisation that monitors the persecution of Christians, reported that Malak told his captors: “Even if you cut me into pieces, I would never renounce my faith.”
Malak was kidnapped in early October. His sister, Madonna Malek, told Worthy News that the family had paid a ransom, but the kidnappers continued to hold him because he was the only Christian among the captives. She said they used violence in an attempt to force him to change his religion.
Malak was a church deacon in Sebarbay, the village where he grew up in Egypt’s northern Gharbia governorate. Like many young Egyptians, he had travelled to Libya in search of work so he could support his family and build a more secure future.
He left Egypt on 2 September with two Muslim friends from his village. After travelling for a day, they arrived in Zliten, a coastal city in Libya, where they stayed with other Egyptians working in the area.
On the morning of 4 October, ISIS fighters seized the three men. The militants demanded money for their release and abused the captives.
The two Muslim friends were freed after their families paid a ransom of $4,700. They were later taken to a hospital in Egypt for medical treatment.
Malak’s family heard about his death from the two men. His relatives then appealed to the Egyptian government to help secure the return of his body. It was eventually handed over several weeks later.
On 28 October, family members and other Christians gathered to mourn Malak and remember his life. A family friend said he had remained faithful to Christ until his death.
Libya is ranked ninth on Open Doors’ World Watch List, which identifies countries where Christians face severe persecution. Christians in the Muslim-majority country can face strong pressure to abandon their faith.
Open Doors and ICC have compared Malak’s killing with the murder of 21 Christian men by ISIS in Libya in 2015. The group included 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians and one man from Ghana, Matthew Ayariga.
The men had travelled to Libya for work. ISIS took them to a beach and killed them after they refused to renounce Christianity. The militants filmed the killings and released the footage online in February 2015.
Egypt responded the following day with airstrikes against ISIS targets in Derna, in eastern Libya.
The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, later recognised the 21 men as martyrs. In 2023, Pope Francis also included them in the Roman Catholic Church’s list of martyrs.
Coptic Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, which is the largest Christian community in Egypt and the wider Middle East.
Egypt and Libya share a long land border, and Egyptian workers have travelled to Libya for employment for many years. However, Libya has faced continuing instability since the 2011 uprising that removed longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. Since 2014, the country has been divided between rival governments and competing authorities.
Sources: Open Doors, International Christian Concern, Worthy News, The Christian Post.
