In Tripoli, roaming bands of armed Salafis—Muslims who seek to follow the example of Islam’s prophet as literally as possible—went door to door of the city’s jewelry stores, ordering the owners to stop selling any crosses or Christian icons.
“Immediately thereafter,” report Arabic media, “the store owners collected all the crosses and Christian icons and delivered them to their Christian villages outside of Tripoli. Other store owners hid the Christian crosses and icons deeply, in the hopes of transferring them somewhere later, because they live in Tripoli and have no outside Christian villages to deliver the banned Christian items to.
Islamic enmity for Christians has been expressing itself regularly in Libya after the U.S. supported “Arab Spring” came there: Christians—including Americans—have been tortured and killed (including for refusing to convert) and churches bombed. It’s “open season” on Copts, as jihadis issue a reward to Muslims who find and kill Christians. This was not the case under Gaddafi.