Originally published 2021-04-19.
Nabil Habashi Salama was a 62-year-old Coptic Christian from Bir al-Abd in Egypt's North Sinai. Militants abducted him outside his home in November 2020, and in April 2021 the Islamic State affiliate known as Sinai Province released a video claiming to show his killing, along with the killings of two young local tribesmen it accused of fighting alongside the Egyptian army. His church confirmed his death and described him as a faithful servant who kept his faith to the end.
This page explains who he was, what is known about the killing, who the group behind it was, and why Egypt's Christians have so often been targeted. We do not link to or describe the footage in detail; the perpetrators made it to spread fear, and the facts can be told without it.
Who Nabil Habashi Salama was
Salama was a well-known businessman in Bir al-Abd, a town on the coastal road between El Arish and the Suez Canal. He owned a shop selling jewellery, mobile phones and clothing. Members of his community said he was a committed parishioner who used his own money to help build St Mary's church in the town, one of very few churches in that part of Sinai.
His son, Peter Salama, told reporters that the captors humiliated his father and broke his teeth while trying to make him renounce his faith, and that he refused. Peter also recalled his father saying the church he was building was really for his own home in heaven. The Coptic Orthodox Church called him a faithful son who remained steadfast until death.
The family heard from the kidnappers during his captivity. Peter said any reassurances his father gave in those contacts were probably made under pressure.
What happened in April 2021
The video, around 13 minutes long, appeared on the group's Telegram channel late on Saturday 17 April 2021 and was widely reported the following days. It showed Salama being shot while kneeling in the desert. In it, a militant addressed Egypt's Christians directly, saying this was "the price you are paying for supporting the Egyptian army," according to Al Jazeera's translation.
That claim belongs to the killers, not to any independent finding. The group regularly accused civilians of collaborating with the state to justify murder, and it offered no evidence that Salama had done anything other than live openly as a Christian and support his church.
Egypt's interior ministry said shortly afterwards that its forces had killed three suspected members of the cell in a firefight, seizing a suicide belt and a grenade, and that the cell had been planning attacks on Christian homes and churches. A search for other members continued. The Coptic Church issued a statement backing the state's efforts against terrorism.
The group behind the killing
Sinai Province grew out of Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, a militant group active in Sinai from 2011. It first focused on Israel and on repeatedly sabotaging the pipeline that carried Egyptian gas to Jordan and Israel. In November 2014 many of its members pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and adopted the new name.
Its record of violence is long:
- October 2015: it claimed the destruction of Metrojet Flight 9268, a Russian airliner, over Sinai. All 224 people on board died. The plane was brought down by a bomb on board, not shot down, as Russian authorities later confirmed.
- July 2017: an attack on an army post at El Barth near Rafah killed about 20 Egyptian soldiers.
- November 2017: gunmen and bombers attacked a mosque in the Bir al-Abed area during Friday prayers, killing 311 people. It remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypt's modern history, and it struck Muslims, showing the group's hostility to Sufis and anyone who rejected its ideology.
Islamic State networks were also linked to attacks on Christians far beyond Sinai, described below. By 2023 the Sinai affiliate was considered effectively defunct after years of military operations and a turn by local tribes against it.
Why Egypt's Copts were targeted
Copts are the largest Christian community in the Middle East, usually estimated at 10 to 15 per cent of Egypt's roughly 100 million people. Islamic State propaganda singled them out as enemies, and between 2016 and 2018 a series of attacks killed dozens of worshippers and pilgrims:
- December 2016: a suicide bombing at the Botroseya church next to St Mark's Cathedral in Cairo killed 29 people.
- 9 April 2017, Palm Sunday: suicide bombers struck St George's Church in Tanta and St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, killing at least 43 people.
- 26 May 2017: gunmen ambushed buses and a truck carrying Copts to the Monastery of St Samuel in Minya province; counts of the dead range from 28 to at least 33, many of them children.
In North Sinai itself, early 2017 saw a wave of killings of Christians in El Arish, and many Coptic families fled the region. Salama chose to stay and to keep building a church in a place where that carried real danger.
The wider Sinai conflict
The insurgency in northern Sinai escalated after 2013 and drew a heavy military response, including a nationwide operation launched in February 2018. Reliable casualty figures are hard to come by because the area was largely closed to journalists. Some press reports cited official claims that thousands of militants had been killed or captured, but these numbers could not be independently checked; the army has given different totals at different times.
The campaign also had a civilian cost. Human Rights Watch reported in March 2021 that troops had demolished more than 12,300 buildings in North Sinai between 2013 and 2020, which it said probably amounted to war crimes. Cairo has rejected earlier Human Rights Watch reports on army abuses. Bedouin residents have long complained of neglect, a grievance militants tried to exploit. Many analysts also link the rise of jihadist groups to the turmoil and disappointment that followed the 2011 revolution.
Remembering the victims
Salama was killed for being a Christian who would not hide his faith. The two young men who died with him were Sinai tribesmen whose names were not widely reported; they too were victims of a group that treated anyone outside its cause as a target. Remembering all three by who they were, rather than by the staging of their deaths, is the best answer to propaganda designed to terrify.
For readers who want to support persecuted communities, established human rights and church organisations working in Egypt publish verified reports and accept donations. When you share news of attacks like this, link to reporting rather than to the attackers' own material.
Sources: Al Jazeera, ISIL-linked group in Egypt claims execution of Copt, 2 tribesmen (19 April 2021); EWTN News / CNA, Coptic Orthodox Christian executed by ISIS affiliates in Egypt (21 April 2021); Wikipedia, Sinai Province; Wikipedia, Palm Sunday church bombings; Wikipedia, 2017 Minya attack; Daily Mail, original report.
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