Survivors and relatives of the December 11 Coptic Christian church bombing in Cairo said they forgive the man who killed 25 of their loved ones and that they are also ready to die for their faith, according to Persecution.org. 

Father Antonios Mounir had just begun the communion service when a bomb violently shook St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church, a building connected to St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, collapsing the ceiling and ultimately killing 25 of the parishioners. “I knew most of the victims,” Fr. Mounir told International Christian Concern (ICC). “They were constantly attending masses and prayers in the church and they had good relationships with God.” 

The 22-year-old suicide bomber, named by President al-Sisi as Mahmoud Shafiq Mohammed Mustafa, had detonated at least 26 pounds of TNT in the women’s seating area of the church — an act of terrorism later claimed by the Islamic State.

Parishioners recognized Mustafa when they saw his photograph later on the news. Tony Takla, a deacon at the church, saw him when Mustafa visited the church the previous day. “We had just finished with a prayer meeting and were standing by the front door when a man carrying a black case came towards us,” Takla told ICC. “He said he was [a] Muslim hoping to learn about Christianity … he asked us to allow him to enter the church to see the church from the inside and to meet any one of the church’s priests.” Takla said that several members told the terrorist that the church was closed and to come back the next day for mass. He returned the next day and set off the bomb during the church service.

“One of the important features of the Coptic Church is it is a church of martyrs.”

The Coptic Christians in Egypt said they forgive their attacker and that they are ready to die for their faith. “I want to send a message to those that killed my wife,” Wagdy Anis said. “I forgive him, and I pray for him and the people who are like him. That God may lighten their minds and open their vision.”

Amad Saad Aziz lost his sister Amany in the attack. “To my martyred sister I say, ‘I love you so much and I want to be like you.’ To you who killed my sister I say, ‘We are ready for martyrdom,'” he said.

The Egyptian Coptic Christians are prepared for martyrdom because Christians there die every day for their faith. “One of the important features of the Coptic Church is it is a church of martyrs,” Fr. Michael Fahmy of St. Mark’s Cathedral said. “We still present martyrs everyday … victims who are killed only because they are Christians.”