Twenty-One Names on a Libyan Shore

On February 15, 2015, twenty-one men knelt on a beach near Sirte, Libya, wearing orange jumpsuits, facing the Mediterranean Sea. They were Coptic Christians — twenty from Egypt, one from Ghana — migrant workers who had traveled far from home to earn wages for their families. ISIS militants had captured them weeks earlier, demanding they renounce their faith.

Not one of them did.

Video footage captured their final moments. Their lips moved in prayer. Several whispered the name of Jesus. Matthew Ayairga, the Ghanaian, had not been a Christian when he was captured. But watching the steadfast faith of his Egyptian brothers during their imprisonment, he declared, "Their God is my God." He chose to die beside them.

Twenty-one men from two nations, speaking different languages, united by a faith stronger than the sword. Their families back in Al-Our and Samalout, Egypt, spoke later not of vengeance but of forgiveness and the certainty that their sons now stood in the presence of the Almighty.