WASHINGTON (ABP) — The body of a slain Christian peace activist, presumably executed by those who abducted him and his three colleagues, returned to his native United States March 13 in preparation for burial.
The body of Tom Fox, 54, arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Fox, the lone American among four Christian peace activists who have been held captive in Iraq since November, was found dead in Baghdad March 9.
Meanwhile, Christian Peacemaker Teams, the group under whose auspices Fox traveled to Iraq, said they will continue their work in the war-torn country. The fate of the other three team members remains unknown. But Christian Peacemakers will remain in Iraq “to greet our missing team members when they are released,” spokeswoman Kryss Chupp told Religion News Service March 13.
Fox's body was found in a garbage dump in the western part of the city. His hands were bound and he had been shot. Subsequent news reports from Baghdad were conflicted on how many times he had been shot and whether he had been tortured before death.
Fox's kidnappers had demanded the release of all Iraqis detained by U.S. and British forces and Iraqi police in exchange for the four hostages' lives.
In one of the story's bitterest ironies, Fox and the other activists had opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq, as well as the detainment of Iraqi prisoners who have not been formally charged with crimes.
The news of Fox's death came only three days after a videotape showing his three British and Canadian colleagues still alive had buoyed hopes among the group's loved ones and supporters. But Christian Peacemaker Teams hinted at the time they took Fox's absence from that video as an ominous sign.
“In grief we tremble before God, who wraps us with compassion,” Christian Peacemakers leaders said in a statement released after Fox's death. “The death of our beloved colleague and friend pierces us with pain…. We mourn the loss of Tom Fox, who combined a lightness of spirit, a firm opposition to all oppression, and the recognition of God in everyone.”
Fox was abducted Nov. 26 in Baghdad, along with Norman Kember, 74, who is a British Baptist; and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32. An Islamic group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness, previously unknown in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
“In response to Tom's passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done,” the Christian Peacemakers statement said. It quoted previous writings by Fox, who was a Quaker, opposing retaliation and violence.
“In Tom's own words: 'We reject violence to punish anyone. We ask that there be no retaliation on relatives or property. We forgive those who consider us their enemies. We hope that in loving both friends and enemies and by intervening nonviolently to aid those who are systematically oppressed, we can contribute in some small way to transforming this volatile situation.'”
A wide variety of groups expressed their solidarity with Christian Peacemaker Teams and Fox's family.
Gary Percesepe, director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, sent his group's leaders an alert shortly after Fox's death was announced. “We continue in prayer for Norman Kember, Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney, and call for their safe release — these who went peacefully to Iraq, on a mission of peace, who bear good will in their hearts for all men and women upon this earth,” he said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations also issued a statement of sympathy. “We offer the American Muslim community's sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Tom Fox, and call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in Iraq,” said CAIR's executive director, Nihad Awad. “There can be no excuse or justification for harming a person whose only goal was to serve the cause of peace and justice for people of all faiths.”
But syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, in comments that appeared March 14 on the conservative Townhall.com, said Fox's work was misdirected.
“Strange thing about these peace movements: they rarely mobilize to oppose the killing, torture and imprisonment practiced by dictators,” Thomas wrote. “It is only when their own country attempts to end the oppression that the activists become active against America, not the initiators of evil. Peace, like happiness, is a byproduct, not a goal that can be unilaterally attained. Peace happens when evil is vanquished.”
But CPT officials posted several of Fox's own writings to illuminate his views. In one — dated Nov. 25, the day before he was abducted — Fox said the American forces had ended up creating more evil in their attempts to vanquish it.
“As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. U.S. forces in their quest to hunt down and kill 'terrorists” are — as 'a result of this dehumanizing word — not only killing “terrorist[s],” but also killing innocent Iraqis: men, women and children in the various towns and villages,” he wrote. “We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exists within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God's children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls.”
CPT website: www.cpt.org
Tom Fox's weblog: waitinginthelight.blogspot.com
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