American journalist beheaded by members of Religion of Peace

I think it is pretty much certain now that Islamic terrorists of ISIS murdered an American journalist, James Foley, by beheading him.

From BBC:

Islamist militants ‘kill reporter James Foley on video’

The militants said the killing was revenge for US air strikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Foley’s mother Diane said on Facebook she was proud of her son: “He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.”

[…]

Here is an image I grabbed from Twitter with her statement:

I cannot fathom her pain and grief, but I admire her poise in this horrible moment.

Please keep James Foley and his grieving family in your prayers.

Sts. Nunilo and Alodia, pray for us.

Sts. Lawrence of Brindisi, pray for us.

UPDATE 20 August:

I just saw some of a presser with the parents of James Foley.

Prayerful… classy… poised.  This family seems, from the very little I have heard of it, to be God loving patriots and decent human beings.

On the other hand, I watched the necktie-less President’s comments from his vacation spot, Martha’s Vineyard.

All his words and images were proper.  POTUS spoke about terrorists and the horrible inhuman things they do.  He also said that people like the ISIS terrorists “ultimately fail”.

Do they?  If they “fail”, they fail because other people stop them.

They need to be stopped permanently.

Again, prayers for the Foley family.  And now, prayers too for Steven Sotloff and his family, who may be the next victim of these Islamic barbarians.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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28 Comments

  1. mrshopey says:

    Prayers for him and all over there. May he rest in peace.

  2. LarryW2LJ says:

    BTW, Mr. Foley is Catholic.

    http://www.marquette.edu/magazine/recent.php?subaction=showfull&id=1318951203&archive

    May his soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.

  3. Juergensen says:

    The silence and inaction from all the supposedly “moderate” Islamic countries is deafening. They could wipe out ISIS in an instant, but they don’t. Hmm, I wonder why?

  4. ckdexterhaven says:

    ABC is reporting that the White House knew that ISIS was planning this. And yet Obama *still* partied on Martha’s Vineyard. He will still golf today. The world is on fire, I wonder if Obama is cool with that. He seems bothered not at all by Christians being tortured and killed by Islamic terrorists. I guess only Republicans can wage a #WarOnWomen?

  5. JesusFreak84 says:

    Obama will not do anything substantial, and as long as he’s pro-abortion and pro-LGBT, that’s all that matters to most Americans =-\ What happens to the non-white people worlds away couldn’t matter less to the crowd that elected Obama.

  6. AnthonyJ says:

    We should all thank God for the Crusades. Without them we would probably be under Muslim domination in the west right now. We will need a new crusade to prevent this domination in the future. Unfortunately the west today is too secularized to take up this challenge.

  7. Kerry says:

    In an ‘editorial’ of Holder’s at the St. Louis Post Dispatch, we read that 40 FBI agents are to be sent to Ferguson and ” The full resources of the Department of Justice have been committed to the investigation into Michael Brown’s death. This inquiry will take time to complete, but we have already taken significant steps. Approximately 40 FBI agents and some of the Civil Rights Division’s most experienced prosecutors have been deployed to lead this process…”
    The DOJ is “deploying”prosecutors from the Civil Rights division. We hope they didn’t have to pull them out of Chicago where the police are shooting blacks out of all proportion…oh,…never mind.
    And “In order to begin the healing process, however, we must first see an end to the acts of violence in the streets of Ferguson. Although these acts have been committed by a very small minority — and, in many cases, by individuals from outside Ferguson — they seriously undermine, rather than advance, the cause of justice. And they interrupt the deeper conversation that the legitimate demonstrators are trying to advance.”
    He doesn’t condemn in the “strongest language possible”? Looting is just an interruption of a conversation?
    Finally this, “And police forces should reflect the diversity of the communities they serve”. Really? Why? If skin color does not signify a lack of character, it cannot indicate the presence of character.
    President “Present!” and Eric the Holder have picked Ferguson as the hill to pander to voters on. And the diversity nonsense tells us why they are so useless in foreign affairs,diversity is one of the tenets of their credo; I believe in Diversity, etc. Avoiding, (and maybe inchoately denying) any truths except for their petty orthodoxies, their tin-foil hat boilerplate is useless against the Saracen menace. It would be easy, it seems to me, to attack the murderers between the ears, turning their own beliefs against them with scorn, ridicule: “You know, if you had toilet paper….” And I pray someone with great prominence will also attack them on their beliefs as to whom is, and is not, as they are so fond of asserting, going to Hell. I have a thin recollection that Moo-slims believe “If a Moo-slim does this!”, whoosh the Russian Front. Another place to assault them. Don’t hold you breath waiting for these guys though. They are fighting the War on Women.

  8. LarryW2LJ says:

    Oh, and by the way, when it appeared that the jihadist who performed the beheading had a British accent, so David Cameron CANCELLED his vacation to lead up an investigation.

  9. jfk03 says:

    Mr. Foley bore his cross with grace and humility. May the Lord grant him the crown of martyrdom. Eternal memory!

  10. Salvelinus says:

    How much more “dialogue” can we continue with?
    Saint Pius V, ora pro nobis!

  11. LarryW2LJ says:

    And after his statement, POTUS was driven to the Martha’s Vineyard Golf Club.

    Such concern.

  12. Kerry says:

    Ultimately fail, when they run out of people to kill? How comforting for the Iraqi Christians, the Kurds, the Yazidi, Syrian Christians

  13. Defender of Truth says:

    It appears that many here, including Fr. Z., have some problems with the President taking a vacation rather than returning to Washington to do something that he cannot do while in Martha’s Vineyard. I am not sympathetic with this President and I am adamantly opposed to his position on a number of issues. However, let’s not get our knickers in a twist because he is on vacation for some well deserved rest from a stressful job. Must I remind you that President Bush spend a full one-third of his first year in office on vacation? .
    We’ve known for years now that George W. Bush received a presidential daily briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, in which he was warned: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” . He then told the CIA briefer he could leave saying: “All right. You’ve covered your as#, now.” He then went fishing. Which case is worse?

  14. Jerry says:

    re: Defender of Truth

    Do I understand you to be suggesting we shouldn’t criticize Obama’s leadership failure because other presidents supposedly did worse?

  15. LarryW2LJ says:

    Just seems to me that going out to play golf at such a time sends the wrong message. Certainly, had a Republican POTUS done that, the media and all the Democrats would be having a “spittle flecked nutty” and would be chomping on said President for dinner.

  16. CrimsonCatholic says:

    @Defender of Truth

    That isn’t true, Bush did a lot of his Presidential work at his own ranch in Texas. This is what is counted when the MSM mentions vacation days. He did not spend nearly as much time or money going to Hawaii, going to Martha’s vineyard, going abroad, etc. Also, Obama has by far spent more time golfing then the last president and probably any of the others as well because Obama has played 186 rounds of golf compared to George W. Bush, who played just 24 rounds during his 8 years.

    Also, what exactly has Obama done since his last vacation? How much time did he spend with working with congress to address the border congress? Or addressing the IRS scandal? Or Russia?

  17. Juergensen says:

    Too bad the crusaders didn’t finish the job.

  18. ecs says:

    Defender of Truth –

    Democrat political hack troll alert.

  19. MarkJ says:

    St. Bernard, pray for us. We are all Crusaders now..

  20. Bosco says:

    God rest his soul and comfort his very brave family in their profound grief.

    I couldn’t help but note today’s news on FOX Latino concerning the Bishop of Rome’s latest initiative to bring peace to the middle-east which is riven by war and unspeakable barbarity:

    ” Pope Francis Drafts Messi, Maradona And Others To Play In Soccer Match For Peace In Gaza”

    http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sports/2014/08/13/pope-francis-drafts-messi-and-maradona-to-play-in-soccer-match-for-peace-in/

  21. RJHighland says:

    I can’t believe no one has mentioned how President Obama, between rounds, in his news conference was separating ISIS from the Islamic faith. No this action by ISIS is real Islam. The false Islam are the ones that say it is a religion of peace, what a crock, it never has been a religion of piece from the time of Mohamed until today. The only time it is a peaceful religion is when it is first entering into a new country or territory. Once it’s number are sufficient they start calling for special rights, then when they don’t get them they start killing people and blowing things up and marching in the streets, see, France, England, Spain, and Germany. It is coming here sooner than we think. I pray we elect a Christian with Traditional American values in 2016. “Defender of Truth” boy is that a misnomer. “Promoter of Private Agendas” would be more appropriate. Here is a little more information that “Defender of Truth” provided. http://www.911myths.com/index.php/August_6_PDB.
    President Bush was not perfect by any stretch, but I’m sure he got more work done in Texas than Obama does out on the golf course. What sane individual wouldn’t want to get the heck out of Washington D.C. when you have a place in Texas those are like two different worlds. From what I understand when President Bush was in Texas he was still working much of the time, recieving foreign dignataries on such and his ranch house was set up like White House west. For Obama it was a promotion and an opportunity to promote his leftist philosophy, for Bush it seemed to be more of a call of duty to God and Country. Obama worships his god every Sunday, when he is shaving in the morning before he goes to play golf or play some basketball. He claim’s he is a Christian, some say he is a closet Moslem, I say he is neither because he doesn’t practice the core believes of either in his life or politics, he is just being a good community organizer and creating chaos everywhere.

  22. ckdexterhaven says:

    And another thing….at least The Thing That Used To Be Conservatism has this barbaric Islamic terrorist incarcerated at Gitmo. Just sayin’.

    It seems especially cold hearted to talk about an American citizen getting his head chopped off and then immediately headed to the golf course. Cold, not cool. The same Vacationer In Chief had Army deserter Bowe Bergdahl’s parents in the Rose Garden with him. And Bergdahl’s collaborated with the Terrorists. But yeah, keep on defending that.

  23. Bob B. says:

    Let’s not forget who trained and armed ISIS (et al). This administration is run by people who have no idea what goes on in the “real” world and they are (with a few others) responsible for this “moderate” anti-Syrian group and their actions.

  24. Defender of Truth says:

    ecs: In no way am I a democratic troll. If you can’t answer me with a reasonable comment, please don’t say anything.

  25. Kerry says:

    Neville Chamberlain gets the goat for the “Peace in our time”. Churchill however, delivered a eulogy at the House of Commons, saying “It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted by events, to be disappointed in his hopes, and to be deceived and cheated by a wicked man. But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed? What were these wishes in which he was frustrated? What was that faith that was abused? They were surely among the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart-the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril, and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour. Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged. This alone will stand him in good stead as far as what is called the verdict of history is concerned. ” (Google the whole thing.) But of Stanley Baldwin ” “Shortly after the war,” writes Gilbert, “when he was asked to send Baldwin, then aged eighty, a birthday letter, [Churchill] declined to do so, writing to an intermediary: ‘I wish Stanley Baldwin no ill, but it would have been much better had he never lived.’

    “In my long search for Churchill,” Gilbert concluded, “few letters have struck a clearer note than this one. Churchill was almost always magnanimous: his tribute to Neville Chamberlain in 1940 was among the highpoints of his parliamentary genius. But he saw Baldwin as responsible for the ‘locust years’ when Britain, if differently led, could have easily rearmed, and kept well ahead of the German military and air expansion, which Hitler had begun in 1933 from a base of virtual disarmament. Churchill saw Baldwin’s policies, especially with regard to Royal Air Force expansion, as having given Hitler the impression, first, that Britain would not stand up to aggression beyond its borders, and second, that if war came Britain would not be in a position to act effectively even to defend its own cities.”
    I assert that Obama is Baldwin. The topmasts are ablaze, the enemy is upon us. ( Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was released from Camp Bucca in Iraq in 2009, during the 5th year of President Bush’s second term,UK Telegraph.)
    What I think of the Golf King: “The fort is betrayed even of them that should have defended it.”

  26. Salvelinus says:

    Defender of Truth.

    Democratic political operative from Soros funded fake Catholic group alert.

  27. Reconverted Idiot says:

    Defender of Truth said: “We’ve known for years now that George W. Bush received a presidential daily briefing on Aug. 6, 2001, in which he was warned: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” . He then told the CIA briefer he could leave saying: “All right. You’ve covered your as#, now.” He then went fishing. Which case is worse?”
    ….
    “If you can’t answer me with a reasonable comment, please don’t say anything.”

    Okay, I’ll bite, being a Brit and all with no axe to grind: Obama is worse.

    And here’s why: Bush could do nothing about “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” Unless you’d like to correct me, like by suggesting what he could have done other than hear the briefing and leave it to those whose job it was to trace and track terrorists to, umm I dunno like maybe do their jobs?

    Even assuming the reported comment on as#-covering is correct, it makes no odds, the other side of as#-covering, besides briefing the president on current intelligence, was and should have been tracing and tracking terrorists about whom they were briefing.

    OTOH the current “leader of the free world” has golfed while thousands of square miles of territory which over the past decade has seen the sacrifice of his own soldiers – and those of his allies* – in order to remove an emergent Islamist scourge post the Iraq-invasion, has fallen prey to an even more radical form of Islamism than that defeated by the post-invasion policies of himself and his predecessor. IOW, Obama “fiddles” with his golf clubs while the “Rome” his own people sacrificed so much for burns with an unholy fire. The man is an utter sham.

    I admired Obama for his oration skills, by which he surely stands well above his predecessor. But at least Bush II gave the go ahead to invade Afghanistan and went after the Taliban, and at least he gave the order to blast the Fallujah Islamists into submission after the Iraq invasion. Bush may be any number of things – I’m certainly no fan – but Obama is a complete fake and that’s something I find it very hard to accuse Bush of.

    *I live close to the Hospital unit in the UK where British casualties of Iraq and Afghanistan were transferred, I’ve seen a man with one limb recovering from an IED across from where my own father lay dying in the same intensive care ward. The failure of western leaders — not just Obama’s but certainly not least his — to do anything about ISIS is an affront to everything men like that have sacrificed.

  28. StarOfTheSea47 says:

    My prayers for the soul of James Foley, for the solace of his family and friends, and that DAASH (Arabic acronym for Islamic State) will be stopped before another innocent person is killed. I think James Foley was a hero and I believe he may be a saint, too.

    One thing that strikes me about the comments here, though, is that they feel a little uncharitable. It’s just not true that “all” Muslims want a caliphate, or that the Islamic State has so much support. To say things like this does, I think, a great injustice to all the innocent Muslim souls that have been ruthlessly murdered by the Islamic State.

    Discussion is important, and DAASH (Dulat al-Islam fi al-Iraq wal-Sham, aka “ISIS”) must be dealt with as soon as possible. Some of the comments, though, seem to imply that the Islamic State just came out of nowhere, and there’s, I think, a dangerous nostalgia for defending George W. Bush present, too. I personally believe the decision to invade Iraq was not only wrong on an intelligence level (no weapons of mass destruction), but very morally wrong, too. And that it led only to horrible loss of life, both Iraqis and Americans. I think it arguably created more enemies, and the world is more dangerous because of it.

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