Death of 21 Coptic Martyrs Coming to the Big Screen
Episode Stats
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149.8031
Summary
In this episode, we remember the 21 martyrs who were killed by Islamic militants for their faith in Jesus Christ. We talk to the wives, the brothers and sisters of these modern day martyrs, and the fathers of the martyrs.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Can you believe it's been about 10 years since this happened?
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Do you remember that? The 21 martyrs for faith in Jesus Christ who were killed by Islamic militants.
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I know for a lot of people it was sort of, oh, yuck, I can't bear it.
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But you were watching live martyrdoms, people giving their lives to Jesus Christ.
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And you've got to check this out. There's a film being made to commemorate 10 years, a decade since this happened, because it was in 2015.
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There's a film being prepared right now that we're going to show you a clip of.
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It's just incredible. They talked to the wives, the siblings, the fathers even, of these martyrs, of these modern-day martyrs,
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who the world was able to witness being martyred for Jesus Christ.
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Listen to a little bit of this. Check this out.
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He was a doer, he was born. He was a lion, but a dead 거예요.
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And when he was given up for example, it was, he was interrupted for to go to something in Libya today.
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They died in the country and were looks very支出去
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but now it was when given a case of it was gold
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I was comforted to know that in the hope they had, their faith was not forsaken.
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Okay. It's amazing. And I know, like me, you probably can't wait till this is released,
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which is coming in 2025. And we have with us the director, Raouf Zaki. Stay tuned for this
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interview on The John Henry Weston Show. Truth has a power of its own. It moves hearts
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Thank you for having me, John. Thank you. God bless you for what you do.
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Let's praise God. Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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First of all, I want to say thank you, because the witness of those Coptic Christians to the faith
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in Jesus Christ was so stunning for all the world to see. And the conversations you captured with
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their wives, the widows. Now, tell us, this is, although in that part is about the wives,
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the actual wives, the actual widows, and it is so powerful, but you are actually doing a feature film
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which reenacts this. And we have, of course, the footage that it was, but you reenact the story
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behind the story that led to this point as well. Yes. Yes. You know, the film was inspired by these
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true events. It, they were an inspiration to me because when I walked in the church,
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you know, I saw, you know, in, in cases, their clothes, their orange clothes, you know,
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drenched in, you know, blood and, you know, people getting blessings from this and people coming to
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the church that was built to commemorate them that you saw in the video, which was a victory in its own,
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and the blessings that people get from that. And the event itself was a major inspiration for the film,
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because what happened during those 40 days? How did they survive those harrowing 40 days?
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They were, were there temptations to give in and deny Christ, where there were grace that was shown and
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sign that was shown. And I researched quite a bit about them for an entire year after I visited the
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church. And, you know, I found out that they were really humble men from, you know, extremely poor
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families who, you know, I, for example, I was just with, you know, one of the sisters of two of the
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martyrs. They had, she had an older brother and a younger brother who were martyred together. And she
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told me this unbelievable story of how both of them were working in Libya, just like the other martyrs.
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They were in this building, there were all these rumors that ISIS is going around. And there were, you know,
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a lot of warnings in the past. Don't go to Libya, you know, but, you know, they had to do it because
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they're the older brothers of a family, and they're relying on them for support. And there was no work in
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upper Egypt where they came from. And so they were working as construction workers, and they came from
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incredibly faithful families who just taught their kids to, you know, like when you have,
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when you're ready for, you know, you Saturday night, you get ready, you take a shower, you go to bed,
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you get ready to be to receive communion the next day, they just taught them this. Now we don't even
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know how to read and write, but they have so much faith. And so anyway, those, those brothers,
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Bishoy and Samuel, Samuel and Bishoy, Bishoy being the oldest, went to Libya first, and then
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Samuel followed him. And the night before ISIS kidnapped him, Bishoy felt something is going to
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happen. So he told his younger brother, listen, I have a best friend in Libya here, I want you to go,
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you know, spend the night with him because I'm worried. And Samuel went with his best friend,
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they spent the night there. But at the middle of the night, Samuel came back and said, you know,
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if there is martyrdom, that's going to happen. I don't, I'm not gonna, I cannot live by myself.
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I want to be with my older brother. Wow. And two hours later, ISIS came and, and kidnapped him.
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This was told from an eyewitness who was in the next room, who was the uncle, and who was not kidnapped.
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But, but, but it shows you the, the, the resilience and the, the, the love for the church. And, and,
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and it's just incredible, incredible stories of faith like this, that really just gives me chills and
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makes me so inspired to, to bring it to the audience, because we really need faith-based films today.
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Absolutely. I mean, what they went through was brutal. And as you explained there, the 40 days
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of captivity before they were actually martyred. Um, we're going to play a little clip of that now.
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I can free you and you join us, but you must pass a little test.
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If we deny God in front of man, he will deny us in heaven.
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Now, tell us, Rauf, how did you get the basis for your stories?
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What kind of research, what did you find in your research and what sort of sources were used
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So, uh, there were, uh, interviews conducted with the families, um, and, uh, the, the research
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goes into, uh, a lot of the biographer, biographical information about them.
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Um, you know, some of them had, um, you know, you know, for example, one of the martyrs
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were, was in a, um, monastery, you know, uh, Egypt is, uh, where monastic life, the idea
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Anthony, the desert father, uh, in the third century.
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And this was, uh, the, the world's first, uh, uh, Christian monk.
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And so there are a lot of monasteries in Egypt.
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So one of them went to upper Egypt, for example, and, uh, went in the monastery and the monk
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there told him, you know what, I, I, uh, you, your name, you know, uh, you know, uh, you,
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you might, you might face martyrdom and, uh, it's very difficult.
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And then he said, you know, uh, it's not, uh, uh, my, my blood is not, is not, is, is
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so, you know, it's not that valuable compared to blood of Jesus.
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And I would, I'm willing to go, um, into martyrdom if it happens.
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And he said, are you experiencing a lot of difficulties and hardships?
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So a lot of them were warned spiritually, um, you know, and, um.
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Um, and you depict those scenes sort of thing in the film?
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Yes, yes, there, there, there, there, there is that.
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And of course, um, you know, also, you know, there are, uh, moments in the film where we
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feel, you know, also we, we're, we're, we're also, um, in the history part because the, the
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town where they come from, all of them, you know, all of them, a lot of, a lot of them
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are related, um, from, from the, you know, from neighboring families, uh, cousins, um,
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Um, but, um, they come from a town, which is an incredibly special town historically,
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I mean, it's not mentioned in the Bible, but, uh, that town, as you know, the Holy
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Um, and they come from the, one of the towns where the Holy Family stayed for six months
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in a mountainous area and they were, it was, were hiding there in a, in a very, uh, modest,
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And there's a church obviously built there and, um, and people can go and, you know, uh, do,
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uh, you know, uh, do pilgrimage there and all that.
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Uh, but, um, uh, the fact that they, they, they had that, um, to look up to, you know,
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and be proud of, um, as well, uh, is also in the, in the film.
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00:14:58.900
You know, that, that's totally stunning because that kind of meshes with the faith, not only
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that they exhibited, but that their family members did.
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To watch their widows and their children and their siblings speak not of horror, but of
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even gratitude to their tormentors because they made them saints, that brought them into
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Let's just, I want to play that clip one more time of this one testimony.
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That kind of faith, to me is only explained by what you just said, but the fact that this
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particular town is where the Holy Family was because it's the faith handed down by the Holy
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That's why I think your, your film needs to get out there, not only needs to be completed
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and made, this has to be a testimony for the whole wide world.
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So Rauf, tell us where you are in the filming process.
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And I know you've got a Kickstarter going so that people can support the project to completion.
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Tell us where you are, how much is needed for completion and, uh, you know, in sort of,
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So we'll have the link to the Kickstarter below the video.
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Um, um, right now, uh, we shot 25% of the film.
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And so that's complete and we're seeking support to finance the rest of the film to, to shoot
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it in Los Angeles with the same actors, um, by end of the year so that we can edit it beginning
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of 2025 and release it in 2025 to commemorate them on their 10th anniversary.
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Um, we, um, had incredible, um, you know, God's providence was, was just with us, uh, in,
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in ways that I can tell you, like, for example, uh, you know, in Los Angeles where we filmed,
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because most of the actors were in Los Angeles and obviously, you know, LA and California in
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general can, can act, um, a much better backdrop, uh, than, than Boston where I'm, where I am.
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And, uh, to, to act as a much better backdrop, uh, as, as Libya, um, you know, where the events
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So, um, uh, when, when I was there, there was, you know, no way I could afford to shoot on a
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And, um, the film doesn't have any of, uh, the goriness, obviously that,
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you know, you know, ISIS released, um, uh, and the, the, the scene where the martyrdom
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happened, uh, gives, is a much, much, uh, is a much, much, much more, uh, respect and
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much more, uh, uh, a way to glorify God through the martyrdom than the way, obviously, um, you
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know, humans, you know, that ISIS wanted to show it, for example.
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Um, so, um, we, we couldn't afford to shoot on a, on a beach in Los Angeles.
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And, uh, with like thousands of dollars, you have to get a police detail, especially if
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you have people dressed as ISIS and, uh, and then you have to get your own port-of-pies
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So we drove about two hours away in Oxnard and someone told us about it.
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Um, we went there and they gave us a permit for like less than a hundred dollars or something
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And then, uh, and then, um, we walked into the, uh, Coptic church there with St. John
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And I'll never forget that day as you remember, you know, uh, as you know, uh, St. John the
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Baptist is, uh, the first one to be beheaded, uh, in, in, in the New Testament.
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And, um, you know, uh, we, we walked into that church and, uh, the, the, the, the priest,
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Father David met us there and he is like, we're telling him what we're doing.
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And he's like, uh, his eyes opened up and he had a, uh, a major smiling and said, you
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know, and I, our entire church is from the same village as the martyrs and I'm here to
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And the extras and youth volunteer work on the film and all that.
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How can a guy from Boston just go to California and drive up to Oxnard, which is
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And then me, uh, and land in a church that, uh, you know, so things like that kept happening.
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Um, there were, uh, uh, setbacks, obviously the enemy was really, um, you know, um, trying
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Um, and we asked members of the cast to pray and that was, um, that was, that was really
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And, you know, just telling people that to be humble because they're portraying, you
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know, people who, uh, are saints and they're walking in their shoes and, uh, what that really
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It was funny because when we got on, um, here in, in the studio, we lost power.
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And these interviews, we always do a start with a prayer, uh, before we start filming,
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uh, consecrate the, the video we're doing usually to our lady and, uh, and then go from
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Uh, but before we were able to do that, we had a power outage here.
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We had to wait a few minutes till we got back on again.
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Um, while we were speaking, I had a tornado warning.
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Um, and boy, God is showing you with signs that you're on the right track, that you are,
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Um, may, uh, may, may, may, may, may this work be done in the glory of God and, and it
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is, um, for the glory of God, um, that we're, we're seeking here for their stories to come
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Um, you know, um, back when I was doing some research also on what happened to them in Libya,
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um, I wrote in the screenplay that, uh, one of them, um, from research I knew was a, was
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a, was a farmer and used to go, uh, sing hymns, um, in the middle of the night.
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Um, and that was one of his, um, real character, uh, you know, uh, qualities.
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And so I wrote that in the script and I wrote that the fact that, um, he would, uh, probably
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be singing hymns in prison and ISIS wouldn't like it and would try to shut him down.
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Um, and, um, at some point I was able to reach, uh, the lead investigator of the case
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in Libya and I interviewed him on, uh, WhatsApp and he's Muslim.
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And, um, he said, you know, one of them, I said, you know, tell me a little bit about
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what happened, uh, if you, from your investigation, then he was talking and talking.
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And then in the middle of the conversation, he said, you know, one of them, uh, used to
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sing these strange songs and obviously he doesn't know what hymns is because he's not
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from the faith and, uh, he used to sing it all night and encourage others.
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And, uh, ISIS really tried to shut him up and, um, he wouldn't stop.
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So, uh, you know, I gave me, uh, gave me a lot of chills because, you know, uh, what was
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already like something that you would think would happen really happened.
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Um, and, uh, may their blessings be, uh, upon your viewers, upon yourself and, uh, your
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Isn't it amazing when you get to find out, no, that was an inspiration directly from the
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And it's, and it gets confirmed, uh, in this way.
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I look forward so much to seeing the final film.
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We're going to have you on a gun when it comes out.
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Uh, please do send it to me as soon as you're done with it.
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Head over to that Kickstarter so that you can help out Rauf and get this film on the martyrs
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with their blessing, uh, out to the world to spread the truth of Christ.