A 20-year-old Egyptian Christian was reportedly killed by Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Libya after resisting repeated demands to abandon his Christian faith and embrace Islam while in captivity.
Milad Malak, a Coptic Christian, was the only Christian among a group of Egyptian workers abducted by ISIS fighters, according to Open Doors, which cited accounts from two Muslim companions who were later released.
The militants allegedly subjected Malak to days of torture and death threats in an effort to force his conversion. Despite the abuse, he reportedly refused to renounce Christianity and was subsequently killed.
“Even if you cut me into pieces, I would never renounce my faith,” Malak reportedly told his captors, according to International Christian Concern (ICC), a U.S.-based organization monitoring Christian persecution.
Malak was abducted and killed in early October. His sister, Madonna Malek, told Worthy News that the family had paid a ransom, but the militants refused to release him because he was the only Christian among those being held.
A deacon at a Coptic church in Sebarbay, a village in Egypt’s northern Gharbia governorate, Malak had traveled to Libya in search of employment to support his family.
He departed Egypt on Sept. 2 alongside two Muslim friends from his hometown. The three arrived the following day in Zliten, a coastal Libyan city, and stayed with other Egyptian migrant workers before ISIS militants abducted them on Oct. 4.
During their captivity, the militants mistreated the workers and demanded ransom payments. The two Muslim men were released after their families paid $4,700 and subsequently returned to Egypt, where they are receiving hospital treatment.
The released workers informed Malak’s relatives of his death. His family then appealed to Egyptian authorities for assistance in recovering his remains, which were returned several weeks afterward.
Family members and fellow Christians assembled on Oct. 28 to mourn Malak and commemorate his life. A family friend said he had remained steadfast in his Christian faith until his death.
Libya holds the No. 9 position on Open Doors’ annual World Watch List, which ranks countries where Christians face the most severe persecution.
Open Doors and ICC drew parallels between Malak’s killing and the execution of 21 Christian migrant workers by ISIS in Libya in 2015.
The earlier victims included 20 Egyptian Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian man. According to Open Doors, ISIS militants marched the captives to a beach and beheaded them after they rejected a final demand to abandon Christianity. The terrorist group recorded the executions and published the footage online in February 2015.
Most of the Egyptian victims were laborers from villages in southern Egypt’s Minya province who had traveled to Libya for employment. The Ghanaian victim, Matthew Ayariga, had also been working in the country alongside the Egyptian men.
Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, subsequently recognized all 21 victims as martyrs. Pope Francis formally included them in the Roman Catholic Church’s list of martyrs in 2023.
