Young Christian man killed by ISIS in Libya after refusing to deny Jesus
A 20-year-old Christian from Egypt has been killed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Libya after he refused to deny Jesus and convert to Islam while held captive by its fighters.
The victim, Milad Malak, was the sole Christian among the Egyptian workers the militants held, Open Doors reported, citing two Muslim friends held alongside him and later freed.
For several days, the captors allegedly tortured him and threatened to kill him to force him to give up Christianity for Islam. Malak turned down every demand, and he is thought to have been killed by the militants after they were unable to force him to convert.
“Even if you cut me into pieces, I would never renounce my faith,” he told his captors, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern.
He was kidnapped and killed in early October. Speaking to Worthy News, his sister, Madonna Malek, said the family paid a ransom. The kidnappers kept him because he alone among the captives was a Christian, and they used violence to push him to convert, she said.
Malak served as a deacon at a Coptic church in Sebarbay, his home village in Egypt’s northern Gharbia governorate.
He was among many young Egyptians who went to Libya for jobs as their own economy declined, hoping to provide for his family and settle into a secure life.
He left on Sept. 2, traveling with two friends from Sebarbay, both Muslims. After a one-day trip, the three reached Zliten, a city on Libya’s Mediterranean coast, where they lodged with fellow Egyptians who had come for work. ISIS fighters seized them on the morning of Oct. 4.
The kidnappers abused the captives and demanded money for their release. The two friends went free after their families paid $4,700, and both are now in a hospital in Egypt for medical treatment.
Malak’s family learned of his death from the friends. Relatives then asked the Egyptian government to step in and press for his body to be sent home.
The body was handed over several weeks later.
On Oct. 28, relatives and other Christians gathered to mourn him and honor his life. A family friend said he stayed faithful to Christ until he died.
Libya is ranked No. 9 on Open Doors’ annual World Watch List of the most dangerous countries for Christians.
In the Muslim-majority country, Christians come under heavy pressure to leave their religion.
Both Open Doors and ICC linked Malak’s death to the killing of 20 Coptic Christians and a Ghanaian man by ISIS in Libya in 2015. According to Open Doors, the militants took the men to a beach and beheaded them after they refused a final demand to renounce their faith. ISIS filmed the killings and posted the video online.
Copts belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, the largest Christian community in Egypt and the Middle East.
Most of the men killed in 2015 came from villages in Minya province in southern Egypt. Like Malak, they were laborers who had gone to Libya to earn money. The Ghanaian victim, Matthew Ayariga, had been working there alongside the Egyptians.
ISIS released the video of the beheadings in February 2015. Egypt responded the next day with airstrikes on ISIS targets in the eastern Libyan city of Derna.
The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, later declared the 21 men martyrs. In 2023, Pope Francis added them to the Roman Catholic Church’s list of martyrs.
Egypt and Libya share a long land border, and Egyptian laborers have sought work there for decades.
Libya has been in turmoil since a 2011 uprising toppled longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi and has been split between rival governments since 2014.
