Usman Khan, spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said: "The murder of the innocent journalist James Foley is completely shocking, barbaric and unIslamic.
Source/Credit: NewsBomb / mirror.co.uk
By mirror.co.uk / August 22, 2014
The family of American journalist who was beheaded in Syria received a call from the Pontiff.
Pope Francis has called the family of an American journalist whose videotaped beheading by Islamic State militants has sparked outrage around the world.
Vatican spokesman the Rev Federico Lombardi confirmed the pope telephoned James Foley's parents, Diane and John Foley.
The Vatican usually describes such personal calls by the pontiff as private without revealing the contents of the conversations.
John and Diane Foley have declined to comment from their home in Rochester, New Hampshire.
James Foley was covering the fighting in Syria when he was abducted on Thanksgiving Day 2012. The 40-year-old journalist had not been seen until a video of his killing surfaced on Tuesday.
His murder began a new debate between the long-time US and British refusal to negotiate with terrorists, and Europe and the Persian Gulf's increasing willingness to pay ransoms in a desperate attempt to free citizens.
The dilemma is how to save the lives of those kidnapped without financing terror groups, and encouraging more kidnappings.
By paying ransoms, governments in the Middle East and Europe have become some of the biggest financiers of terror groups.
By refusing to do likewise, the US and Great Britain are in the thankless position of putting their own citizens at a disadvantage.
Mr Foley's captors, the Islamic State militants, had for months demanded $132.5million (£80 million) from his parents and political concessions from Washington.
They got neither, and the 40-year-old freelance journalist from New Hampshire was savagely killed within the last week inside Syria, where he had been held since his disappearance.
Extremists called his death a revenge killing for the 90 US airstrikes that have been launched against Islamic State militants in northern Iraq since August 8.
But the ransom demands began late last year, even before the Islamic State - one of the world's most financially thriving extremist groups - had begun its brutal march across much of western and northern Iraq.
"They don't need to do this for money," said Matthew Levitt, a counter-terror expert at the Washington Institute think tank.
"When you ask for 132 million dollars, for the release of one person, that suggests that you're either trying to make a point ... or you don't really need the money."
A senior Obama administration official said the Islamic State had made a "range of requests" from the US for Mr Foley's release, including changes in American policy in the Middle East.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the Islamic State - which controls land across northern Syria and Iraq - has collected millions of dollars in ransoms so far this year alone.
"We do not make concessions to terrorists," she said. "We do not pay ransoms.
"The United States government believes very strongly that paying ransom to terrorists gives them a tool in the form of financing that helps them propagate what they're doing."
Usman Khan, spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, said: "The murder of the innocent journalist James Foley is completely shocking, barbaric and unIslamic.
"The extremist militants say they are acting in the name of Islam but have contravened the clear injunction of the Quran which equates the killing of an innocent person to the killing of the whole of mankind (Q5.33).
"British Muslims as a whole abhor and condemn such murderous acts."
The issue of payments by American families or US corporations is now under debate within the Obama administration.
Source: mirror.co.uk
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