(CNN)Even by ISIS' brutal standards, the video is horrific. Twenty-one Coptic Christians beheaded on a beach in Libya. Christians across the world expressed horror and outrage at the mass killing, with Pope Francis calling the victims "martyrs" whose violent deaths should unite the fractured Christian community. Remarkably, though, a leading Coptic Christian bishop says that he has already forgiven the ISIS soldiers who slaughtered his fellow Copts. Bishop Angaelos, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, was in Washington on Friday for the swearing-in of the United States' new ambassador-at-large for religious freedom, David Saperstein. Angaelos spoke to CNN about why ISIS targets Coptic Christians, and why he forgives them, even as he rejects their horrific acts.
@highlight
Christians across the world express horror and outrage at the mass murder of 21 Christians
@highlight
Bishop Angaelos, a Coptic Christian bishop, says he has already forgiven ISIS
This crime is not just a crime against @placeholder.
It may seem unbelievable to some of your readers, but as a @placeholder and a Christian minister I have a responsibility to myself and to others to guide them down this path of forgiveness.