The Marquette University community is mourning the death of alumnus and journalist James Foley. Islamic militants in Iraq released a video which appeared to show the beheading of Foley.
In the video posted on YouTube Tuesday by ISIS, Foley is seen kneeling next to a man dressed in black. Foley reads an apparently scripted message, to the effect that his “real killer” is America, before being beheaded.
The 40-year old Foley was a New Hampshire native who graduated from Marquette in 1996 with a degree in history and Spanish. Foley disappeared on November 22, 2012, in northwest Syria, near the border with Turkey. He was reportedly forced into a vehicle by gunmen and has not been seen since. He was working for the U.S.-based online news outlet GlobalPost.
A prayer vigil to remember Foley and support of the Foley family will be held in Marquette’s Chapel of the Holy Family on Wednesday, Aug. 27, at 4:00 p.m. All members of the Marquette and Milwaukee communities are welcome.
President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the world was appalled by Foley’s killing. “Jim was a journalist, a son, a brother, and a friend. He reported from difficult and dangerous places, bearing witness to the lives of people a world away,” the president said.”People like this ultimately fail. They fail, because the future is won by those who build and not destroy and the world is shaped by people like Jim Foley, and the overwhelming majority of humanity who are appalled by those who killed him.”
Foley and three other journalists were previously held in Libya for 45 days in 2011, while reporting on that country’s civil war. Foley also reported from Iraq and Afghanistan.