TheBlaze/Deseret News

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It’s been a year since 21 Christians were executed on Feb. 15, by Islamic State militants in Libya, their deaths broadcast to the world in a YouTube video titled “A Message Signed in Blood to the Nations of the Cross,” Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

Each of the men in the video, when asked to affirm their religious affiliation, declared their faith in Jesus and were beheaded, Demetrios wrote.

Christian denominations around the world are marking the anniversary, and Demetrios is part of a group of Christian leaders calling on the U.S. government to formally recognize the genocide of Middle Eastern Christians — something the European Union did earlier this month but that the Obama White House has resisted, according to CBN News.