I had two brothers, Bishoy Estafanos Kamel and Samuel Estafanos Kamel. Bishoy was 25 and Samuel was 23. I am proud of them – they are a credit to Christianity. They make me walk raising my head up in pride. Isis helped us strengthen our faith when they killed my brothers in Libya. Isis gave us more than we asked, because in the video they didn’t edit out the part where they declared their faith and called on Jesus Christ. I thank Isis because they didn’t cut the audio when my brothers screamed their declaration of faith. My family, and all the people in our village, are not in a state of grief; they are happy and congratulating one another for having so many from our village die as martyrs.

Since Roman times, we as Christians have been targeted to be martyred. This only helps us to endure such crisis, because the Bible tells us to love our enemies, and bless those who curse us.

However, the air strikes against Isis that followed were a good response by the Egyptian government, because it was such a long wait after our brothers disappeared, and we didn’t know where they were for six weeks. If they had been killed as soon as they were captured, we wouldn’t have cared for any retaliation; only the length of time when we didn’t know where they were justified the air strikes for us….

Beshir Estafanos Kamel is a Coptic Christian, and the brother of two of the 21 Christians beheaded in Libya by Islamic State in February. This article is taken from an interview conducted by Maher Fayez on the TV programme We Will Sing, aired on the Christian channel SAT-7. SAT-7 is a charity and donations to its work can be made by visiting www.sat7uk.org/my-response/donate

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This is an extract from the May 2015 edition of Reform.

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