March 20, 2006VOL. 44, NO. 6Oakland, CA

Peace group mourns murder of volunteer

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Christian Peacemaker Teams have restated their commitment to nonviolence, despite news of the murder of an American member, and have called for the safe release of three other members kidnapped in Iraq.

The body of Tom Fox, an American Quaker, was discovered March 9 in Baghdad, Iraq. Fox, 54, had been in Iraq for more than a year as a peace activist when he was kidnapped Nov. 26 along with three other members: Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden and Norman Kember of England. Their fate is unknown.

“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,” Christian Peacemaker Teams said in a press statement March 10. “In response to Tom’s passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done.”

A group calling itself “Swords of the Righteous Brigade” claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. In a statement aired Nov. 29 on Al-Jazeera, an Arabic news channel, the kidnappers accused the Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation of proselytizing and spying.

Since then, an American terrorist tracking organization found the kidnappings connected to the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most violent and feared organizations in the Iraqi insurgency.

Fox was from Clear Brook, Va.

Tom Fox (left), a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams, stands with a fellow Iraqi peace activist in Fallujah, Iraq, six months before he was kidnapped in November. His body was found bound and shot in Baghdad, March 9.

CNS PHOTO/Mohanned Faisal

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