'You killed my friend but I'm here to feed you' - Christian aid workers fight hate with love by feeding jailed jihadists

A team of aid workers recently went to a detainment center on the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq to demonstrate God's love for jailed ISIS militants. The non-profit organization Preemptive Love Coalition (PLC) brought food and water to captured ISIS members despite objections from Iraqi leaders.

Matthew Willingham, the senior field editor of PLC, did not join the aid effort but he was able to watch it through a live feed. PLC visited the detention center, going against the advice of Iraqi leaders and friends.

"We believe only light can drive out darkness," Willingham wrote in his blog. "Love is the only real answer to hate. So we went anyway — and gave food, water and clothing to hundreds of high-risk detainees in the compounds outside Fallujah," he added.

Sadiq, one of the aid workers, recognized one of the detainees from an ISIS propaganda video that was posted online.

"You killed my friend," Sadiq said to the man while pouring water into his mouth. "But I've come here to feed you," he continued.

Willingham, a Christian, saw how the love of Christ was demonstrated at the compound that day through Sadiq, a Muslim.

"I see this as the love of God reaching down into the world," he said. "That's a Christ-like love, extended to his [Sadiq's] enemies. Not people he disagrees with, but his enemies. People who murdered his friends. That is the love of God in Christ," Willingham added.

Some of the detainees reportedly wept after receiving their aid packets.

PLC was started 10 years ago when Jeremy Courtney and his wife moved to Iraq. The organization started by providing life-saving surgery to Iraqi children with heart defects. The aid group became began to do much more after the rise of ISIS In 2014.

It is characterized as a "faith-oriented community" but it is not exclusively Christian. Muslims work together with Christians and even with those who do not profess any faith at all. Only Iraqi Muslims were allowed to enter the compound during the group's visit for security reasons.

Apart from actively helping the victims of ISIS, Courtney feels the need to humanize ISIS militants. He believes that some members only joined the terror group to provide for their families. We have to "look at those in ISIS and in similar terror [groups] around the world and see them as individuals," he told Christian Today.