We learned of a horrible, gruesome story over the Valentine’s Day weekend. Some of us (not me) may have even had the stomach to watch the video of 21 Egyptian Christian Coptic men beheaded by ISIS for their faith. They died along a lonely beach in northern Libya bordering the Mediterranean.

There is another image that you should note. It is an picture of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expressing his condolences to Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church. Tawadros is, of course, a Christian, while al-Sisi is a Muslim.

How did the American president Barack Obama react to the butchering of these 21 innocent Christian men?

Here’s the full statement issued this morning by his press secretary:

The United States condemns the despicable and cowardly murder of twenty-one Egyptian citizens in Libya by ISIL-affiliated terrorists. We offer our condolences to the families of the victims and our support to the Egyptian government and people as they grieve for their fellow citizens. ISIL’s barbarity knows no bounds. It is unconstrained by faith, sect, or ethnicity. This wanton killing of innocents is just the most recent of the many vicious acts perpetrated by ISIL-affiliated terrorists against the people of the region, including the murders of dozens of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai, which only further galvanizes the international community to unite against ISIL.

This heinous act once again underscores the urgent need for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya, the continuation of which only benefits terrorist groups, including ISIL. We call on all Libyans to strongly reject this and all acts of terrorism and to unite in the face of this shared and growing threat. We continue to strongly support the efforts of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General Bernardino Leon to facilitate formation of a national unity government and help foster a political solution in Libya.

Notice something blatantly missing from this statement? That’s right — it fails to mention that the men murdered were Christian Egyptian citizens, and that the reason they were slaughtered was because of their Christian faith.

So while the Muslim president of Egypt takes the hand of the grieving Coptic Christian pope to share in that man’s sorrow, the allegedly ‘Christian’ president of the United States cannot bring himself to call the victims of the massacre the name for which they were slain — Christian.

Contrast Obama’s language with the opening of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s statement:

I am outraged and saddened by the beheadings of Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians in Libya by groups linked to ISIL. Coming soon after the savage burning of Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, the threat posed by ISIL could not be clearer.

Oh, but Obama couldn’t help but slam the Christian faith at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5, lecturing us that we should “. . . remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”

Ah, but how the worm turns. The ISIS voice accompanying the video of the weekend’s savagery along the Mediterranean uses the term ‘crusaders’ in its threat:

“All crusaders: safety for you will be only wishes, especially if you are fighting us all together….”

“The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama Bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood.” (Italics mine)

So Obama’s verbal browbeating of Christians at the National Prayer Breakfast was used by our ISIS foes to justify their depravity.

I wonder if Obama will lose any sleep over this, however. After all, his fellow elitist travelers at the New York Times didn’t even see fit to place the brutal annihilation of 21 Christian men on page one of its “All the News That’s Fit to Print” rag. They buried it on page 6.

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters — a man who poses an extraordinary way with words — explained why Obama and the rest of the left just cannot bring themselves to defend Christians, and instead side with Islam:

“We’ve got this problem where everybody on the left in the United States romanticizes Islam. They’re always scolding us, ‘Beware of Islamophobia, you can’t indulge in Islamophobia.”

“We do not have an Islamophobia problem in the United States, we have an Islamophilia problem – which places Islam above all criticism. And until we hold Islam to the same standards as every other religion, ethically and behaviorally, terrorism wins.”

Islamophilia. That’s a fitting term for what ails Obama and the left. Unfortunately, we may all be paying the price for this pathological, illogical, and life-threatening condition.