Cold-blooded Murder of a Coptic Christian Medical Professional Family in ‘Democratic Libya’ by Islamic Extremists on 23rd December 2014 – Corpus Jehovah Universal Christian Human Rights Chambers, Corpus Jehovah Communications| Supreme Jehovah GOD Ministries & Missionaries
Post date: Jan 08, 2015 10:37:32 PM
Dr Magdy and Wife Sahar’s Wedding Photo (Married July 20, 2000)
On 23rd December 2014, a Medical Professional Family of Egyptian Coptics, Dr Magdy Sobhy Tawfiq, Sahar Talaat Rizk, and their 13-year-old daughter Catherine were brutally murdered in Sirte, Libya, where the family has lived since 2001. Dr Magdy was a Medical Doctor working in the Jarf Health Center in Sirte and Sahar was a pharmacist.
Dr Magdy and Sahar were murdered in the early morning hours of Tuesday, December 23 at the Doctors Housing Complex where the Coptic Christian Family lived with their Children Catherine (13) and two younger daughters (Age 10 and Age 9). Catherine was taken from the family’s home and her body was found in the desert outside the city on Thursday, December 25.
Rev Dr Koku Foli Adomdza HRH, Chancellor, President and Servant of GOD of Corpus Jehovah | Supreme Jehovah GOD Ministries & Missionaries Fellowship and Foundation remarked that “How The Holy Christmas Season, of the Only Begotten Son of The Creator of the Universe, the Grand Benefactor of Priceless, Precious Life, can be defiled in this manner is incredible, more so from criminals who are deluded to think they serve any God through murder. It takes confused and deranged cowards to pick up unarmed civilians at dawn and murder them cold-bloodedly this way. It is only a Satanic Ideology that can create such mentally-deranged and unstable individuals to perpetuate such barbarism. Certainly, their kind of God is not the Creator of Human Beings or Humankind, but the one that comes to Kill, Steal and Destroy.
“That in the 21st Century anybody should be murdered and persecuted for the Exercise of their Inalienable, Sacred and Fundamental Human Right of Religious Belief is terribly perturbing and heart wrenching. Enlightened global Citizens have a duty to condemn these murders in the strongest of terms because they are criminal, uncouth and have no place in any Civilised Culture, Religion, Society, Region, Nation, Continent or World.
“Even more shocking is the regrettable realisation that Secular Governments in predominantly Christian Countries, founded on Christian Foundations, with Christian Values, have legislated Laws to criminalise and jeopardise the Religious Rights of Christians. So it is not just the case that Christians are persecuted in non-Christian Jurisdictions, but that Christians are actively victimised, harassed, harangued, persecuted and crucified in Christian Countries where the Heads of Governments are Secular with Christian Heads of State. Now that is the scariest reality.
“We need a Global Leadership that takes responsibility for creating a Enlightened Civilisations where Fundamental Human Rights including Respect, Regard and Protection for Religious Freedoms are upheld as Inalienable, to the degree that it becomes unthinkable for anyone to be persecuted on grounds of Faith, Religious Belief, Association, Preference and Practice. We ask for Moslems across the World to stand up to denounce the increasing murderous criminalities of Fascist Militant Extremist who defame Islam. We call for Repentance for these Criminals who are being used by the devil and ask them to surrender. May the Souls of All Persecuted Christians Rest in Perfect Peace.”
Bureaucratic Passporting Delays amidst Increasing Threats by Ansari Al-Sharia Extremist Militant Islamist Group
The young couple moved to Libya in 2001, just shortly after they were married on July 20, 2000. Dr Magdy worked for two years at a Diabetes Clinic in Sirte before transferring to the Jarf Health Center, Tamer Talaat Rizk, Sahar’s brother told Corpus Jehovah Universal Christian Human Rights Chambers.
“I stayed with them for 2 years in Sirte before I returned back to Egypt,” Tamer told CORPUS JEHOVAH UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION CHAMBERS. “During my stay with them there I noticed that Doctor Dr Magdy was serving all the people there and he was beloved from the all. For free he would help explain difficult lectures to students who were studying in the faculty of Medicine in Site. He was a very kind and respected man,” Tamer recalled.
The family had been attempting for months to find a way to leave the country, but had been delayed in getting the necessary paperwork.
Dr Magdy felt the family was in danger but the management of his work didn’t give him his passport; his contract was not yet finished. “He also asked the Libyan Authorities and the Representative of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in Misrata, Libya to protect him and help him to return back to Egypt,” Tamer told CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS. “But the officials told him, ‘Sorry we can not do any thing for you.’ And they advised him not to leave Libya these days because all the ways to travel are unsafe and his life and his family’s lives will be endangered if they travel by his private car,” Tamer said.
“On Monday, December 22, at 6:30 pm, Sahar called my mother and told her that they are working to finish the paperwork needed to travel to Egypt and they will leave soon, because their lives became unsafe in Libya,” Michael Talaat Rizk, another of Sahar’s brothers, told CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS.
The family was growing increasingly concerned for their safety “especially after their oldest daughter Catherine was threatened with death if she did not wear a veil,” Michael said. “Some Islamic Militants belonging to the Ansar Al-Sharia Extremist Groupdemanded that Catherine not go out from her home without wearing the veil and threatened her that they are going to kill her if she did not wear a veil,” he continued.
A Barbaric, Sadistic Dawn Murder
“At 4:00 am on Tuesday, December 23, Doctor Dr Magdy woke up to the knock on the door of the housing building,” Samir Sobhy Tawfiq, Dr Magdy’s brother told CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS. “He likely thought that there was a patient with an urgent case and was in need his help, but after opening the door, he found some armed masked men, they attacked him and handcuffed him, put him into a chair,” he continued.
Samir, a doctor in Tanta, Egypt, was told the details of the incident by his brother Maged who works in Tripoli, Libya and travelled to Sirte to care for the two youngest daughters who were eyewitnesses to the incident and met with officials following the initial investigation.
Sahar pleaded with the men to take the family’s money (6,000 Libyan dinar or $4,500 USD) and jewellery and leave them alive, but money was not the reason they had come. Sahar then ran into the room to protect the three girls, Samir told CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS.
“They then entered the children’s room and shot and killed Sahar there. Then they abducted Catherine, leaving the other two children behind. They also dragged Dr Magdy outside and shot and killed him in front of the door of the Health Unit. They put Catherine into their car and fled,” Samir recounted to CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS.
Dr Magdy was found still handcuffed after he’d been shot and killed.
Dr Magdy’s Mutilated Body by Extremist Libyan Islamists, Dec 2014
Dr Magdy Sobhy Tawfiq killed in Sirte, Libya December 23, 2014
The attack was clearly not a robbery and was likely motivated by religion, Local Council Chairman Yussef Tebeiqa said.
“Money left on the table and the wife’s jewellery left at the crime scene were not touched,” he added in a statement quoted by AFP.
Catherine was found in the Libyan Desert on Thursday, December 25, Samir told CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS. “She was shot three times, twice in the head and once in the chest,” he said.
Shock, Sadness and Mourning to the Mindless Murders
“The motive of killing them was sectarian,” Michael, Sahar’s brother said. “Those Militants targeted them because they are Christians, they killed them because of their faith in The Lord Jesus Christ”
Michael continued, “My sister, her husband, and their daughter Catherine were martyred on the Name of Jesus Christ and that is the only thing that comforts us. We are sure that they are in the heaven now because they kept the faith and didn’t deny the Lord Jesus Christ.”
This latest incident again highlights the increasing Persecution of Christians, disrespect of Fundamental Human Rights across Libya and throughout the World where Christians have faced explicit targeting from Extremist Militant Islamist Groups, as CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS has highlighted periodically.
The same day as this attack, the United Nations issued a report documenting the Human Rights Abuses and Volatile Security Situation in Libya. The United Nations Support Mission in Libya issued a statement condemning the attacks.
“These heinous murders, apparently committed for religious motives by unidentified gunmen, are totally rejected by the Libyan people and are alien to their tradition of tolerance towards religious minorities and hospitality extended to foreign guests,” the Mission said in a statement issued Wednesday, December 24.
Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based advocacy group said, “The victims were killed simply because of their religious identity, which constitutes a crime against humanity.”
Fady Youssef, founder of Coalition of Coptic Egypt, also condemned the attacks and called for the Egyptian government to take decisive action to protect Egyptians in Libya in an interview with CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS.
“I condemn the brutal crime of killing the Coptic family in Libya, and I charge the responsibility of killing these family on the Egyptian Government. I accuse the Egyptian Government of passiveness, inaction, indifference and disregard for the rights of Egyptians abroad, particularly in Libya,” Youssef said.
Tamer, Sahar’s brother, also urged for Government Officials to apprehend those responsible, but also was encouraged by his faith.
“I urge the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to demand the Libyan authorities to quickly investigate into this brutal crime and arrest the killers quickly and bring them to the justice,” he said. “But I ask God to bring the rights of the Martyrs. I trust Him, He is a just God,” Tamer concluded.
Magad, Dr Magdy’s brother has finalized the paperwork necessary to return the bodies to Egypt, Samir told CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS. “We await their arrival on Tuesday, December 30, and the prayer service for them will be held in the Mar Girgis Church, Abu Naga, Tanta.”
As Libya, continues to be torn apart by militant Islamist Groups fighting, it is not just about claims of power, but also imposing their religious ideology and driving out or killing those who do not conform to their dictates.
Corpus Jehovah Universal Christian Human Rights Commission Chambers | Corpus Jehovah UCHRC Chambers is the Human Rights Bureau of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Ministries & Missionaries Fellowship and Foundation that advocates for the Protection of Religious Freedoms, Rights including Freedom of Worship and Campaigns Against Religious Persecution throughout the World.
CORPUS JEHOVAH UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION CHAMBERS | CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS COLLABORATES WITH LIKE-MINDED FORCES FOR GOOD AND DIVINE ENLIGHTENMENT TO MANIFEST THE RESPECT FOR CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WITH STATE AND NON-STATE LOCAL, REGIONAL, NATIONAL, CONTINENTAL AND INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS WITH RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE UPHOLDING OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS.
CORPUS JEHOVAH UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION CHAMBERS | CORPUS JEHOVAH UCHRC CHAMBERS CONSIDERS RELIGIOUS RIGHTS AS INTEGRAL TO DIVINE, INALIENABLE, SACRED AND CIVILISATIONAL HIGH MORAL IMPERATIVES WHICH MUST BE OBSERVED BY ALL PERSONS, SOCIETIES, CULTURES AND INSTITUTIONS IN PEACE WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR.
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