Import Libya, Become Libya

Greece is currently flooded by illegal Muslim migrants from Libya and other Muslim-majority nations. It is thus significant to ask what kind of a culture Greece, and the rest of Europe, is importing by receiving these migrants en masse. The way Christians in Libya are treated gives a clear answer.

On April 15, a Libyan court sentenced eleven Christians from a Muslim background—nine Libyan men, one Libyan woman, and one Pakistani man—to prison terms ranging from three to 15 years on charges that include “insulting Islam” and “insulting religious sanctities and rituals using the internet.” 

Six of those Christians were reportedly arrested in 2023 for converting to Christianity and proselytizing. The authorities tried to use torture to force them to recant their faith. A U.S. citizen was also arrested by Libya’s Internal Security Agency (ISA) and was expelled from the country following accusations of proselytizing.   

In another Libyan incident, a Christian convert from a Muslim background received a death sentence over “apostasy” in 2022. The convert was reportedly required to publish the verdict in a local newspaper and on a local radio station, as well as display it outside his residence and the court. He did not have legal representation during the proceedings. He is imprisoned while his case remains pending with the Supreme Court.

Since the collapse of the state following the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in the 2011 revolt, Libya has become one of the most dangerous places in the world for Christians. It ranks fourth on the World Watch List, created by Open Doors, an organization that monitors global Christian persecution. A fragmented country of 7 million with different groups exercising control over different parts of it, Libya today is an international battlefield, where a Turkish-Qatari-Pakistani Islamist axis is competing with the Emirati-Saudi-Egyptian axis for influence. The internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in charge of western Libya is rivaled by the Government of National Stability (GNS) that controls eastern Libya. Radical Islamic groups are mostly connected to the internationally recognized government in the West, although there are also radical elements among the Eastern parties. Such groups are responsible for the most violent forms of persecution and act with absolute impunity. In recent years, some of these groups have become increasingly part of the institutions because their leaders now hold official positions within both governments.

Regardless of which government authorities or local radical militia are in charge in a given area, Christians are persecuted. No church anywhere in the country can accept converts. Almost all expatriate Christian workers have left the country, and the main Christian groups who remain are Sub-Saharan migrants and some Egyptian Coptic Christians.

Both the 2011 interim Constitutional Declaration and the draft 2016 Constitution declare Islam to be the religion of the state and Sharia as the primary source of legislation. 

According to the criminal code, insulting Islam or Mohammed is punishable with the death penalty. This means, therefore, that the few remaining churches must operate carefully. They cannot invite or accept visits from Muslims to church services. In addition, atheists and anyone who publicly questions Sunni Islamic doctrine are also very much at risk of being targeted.

Bringing Arabic Christian literature and Bibles into Libya is strictly forbidden.  Proselytizing or missionary activity among Muslims is officially prohibited. If suspected of being interested in Christianity, a Libyan woman can face house arrest, sexual assault, forced marriage, or even death, according to Open Doors. Women who experience sexual violence because of their faith, sometimes as a form of punishment, encounter social and cultural barriers to the prosecution of any offense.

Christian converts can be harmed or murdered with impunity when attacks are carried out by family members, who consider the matter one of ‘family honor.’ But Christians can also be killed with impunity by both radical groups and government officials. 

Islamic teaching influences all school curricula. Even international schools must follow the Islamic curriculum. The children of Christian migrants, if they go to school, must attend Islamic instruction and are vulnerable to harassment. 

Militias and local ruling groups maintain checkpoints to monitor all those entering their territory. Being visibly recognizable as a Christian brings risks in Libya. Wearing a cross or, like Egypt’s Copts,  having a tattoo of a cross on the wrist or arm, can be dangerous. 

Some Christian converts even keep their new faith hidden from their children for fear that the children might accidentally reveal it. Christians in Libya are heavily monitored by their local communities or by private groups. Converts and expatriate Christians alike avoid many parts of the country and tend to live in urbanized areas where secrecy and anonymity are more possible.

Not only converts to Christianity will experience pressure to recant their faith. At times Sub-Saharan migrant Christians are forced to convert to Islam or do so to protect themselves. Those who do not give up their faith are likely to be singled out for persecution or even killed.

Several Sub-Saharan African Christians were kidnapped for ransom, while others held in detention centers in Libya were reportedly raped and beaten. 

Slavery and human trafficking still take place despite an international outcry in 2017 when CNN showed video evidence of an auction of Sub-Saharan Africans, many of whom are Christian. 

Several church buildings and other places of Christian worship, mostly belonging to Sub-Saharan African Christians, have been attacked, demolished, or damaged. In 2022, the Union Church of Tripoli received a court order to leave the building it had used for more than fifty years. Hence, there are few church buildings in the country.

But even those churches and buildings used as churches remain a vulnerable target for attack, especially by radical Islamic groups. Even the few registered church buildings cannot display religious symbols on the outside walls, since the public display of Christian symbols is considered to be an indirect form of proselytization and can attract serious punishment from the authorities—or even lead to a public lynching.

Before Islam, however, Libya (known as Libye to the Greeks) was a land of diverse peoples and cultures, which included the Berbers, Phoenicians, Jews, Greeks, and Romans. It was a crossroads of civilizations, with Phoenician settlements in the west, Greek city-states in the east, and periods of Carthaginian, Persian, and Roman rule. 

Libyans have been among the wider Christian community since the incarnation of Jesus, with Christianity becoming established in ancient Libya during the Roman era. Libya had a vibrant Christian population for at least five centuries, during which time the country “produced a wide variety of key players from early martyrs to great thinkers to arch heretics.” Some of the early converts to Christianity were from Cyrene in Libya and were active as lay missionaries (Acts 11:20), like Simon of Cyrene. The country’s historic sites include early examples of Christian places of worship and baptismal pools. However, the church in Libya was almost wiped out in the decades following the arrival of Islam in the seventh century. Arab Muslim armies invaded the land and captured it from Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Greeks. That is when the Arabization and Islamization of Libya began.  

Today, it is difficult to get reliable statistics on any religious community in Libya. There are probably no Jews at all, and some estimate that there are around 35,000 Christians left, the overwhelming majority of whom are migrant workers. 

The extreme persecution against the tiny Christian community in Libya is reason enough why Islamic migration from Libya and other Muslim nations to Europe must be stopped. Otherwise, if we import Libya, we will become Libya. If you import Islam, you will, sooner or later, be conquered by Islam.