The United States is appalled by the brutal murder of American journalist James Foley by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. Foley, 40, was taken hostage nearly two years ago in Syria while courageously reporting on the conflict there.
“Jim Foley’s life,” said President Barack Obama, stands in stark contrast to his killers”:
“Let’s be clear about ISIL. They have rampaged across cities and villages killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and children and subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They have murdered Muslims, both Sunni and Shi’a by the thousands. They target Christian and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can, for no other reason than they practice a different religion.”
Clearly, ISIL has no ideology of any value to human beings, said President Obama. They may claim out of expediency that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior.
“People like this,” said President Obama, “ultimately fail. . .because the future is won by those who build and not destroy. The world is shaped by people like Jim Foley and the overwhelming majority of humanity who are appalled by those who killed him.”
The United States, said President Obama, “will continue to do what we must do to protect our people”:
“We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done and we act against ISIL, standing alongside others.”
There has to be a clear rejection of this kind of nihilistic ideology, said President Obama. ISIL has no place in the 21st century. America’s friends and allies around the world share a common security and a common set of values. “And we will continue to confront this hateful terrorism,” said President Obama, “and replace it with a sense of hope and civility.”