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Campus Responds to Death of Peace Worker Tom Fox

News of the death of Tom Fox, 54, a Christian Peacemaking Team worker held hostage in Iraq, has been an especially difficult blow for those who knew him at Eastern Mennonite University.

U.S. forces in Iraq recovered the body of kidnapped Christian Peacemaker Teams activist Tom Fox, CPT confirmed on Mar. 10.

Tom Fox (seated right) participates in a Christian Peacemaker summer camp in an undated photo. Fox was absent from footage of hostages being held in Iraq that was broadcast by Al-Jazeera on Tuesday.
AP Photo / Christian Peacemaker Teams Iraq, File

Fox, a Quaker from Clearbrook, Va., was found by Iraqi police with his hands bound and with gunshot wounds to the head and chest the evening of Mar. 9, according to the Associated Press. When police saw the body was that of a Westerner, U.S. military authorities were called to the scene, reports said.

Fox had studied one semester in EMU's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding graduate program before going to Iraq as a CPT peace worker. He was kidnapped in Baghdad Nov. 26 along with fellow CPTers Norman Kember, 74, a Briton, and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32. The four were seized at gunpoint by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade and have been shown in videos released by the group, which has demanded the release of all detainees in U.S. and Iraqi prisons.

The most recent video, a silent 25-second clip that aired on Aljazeera Mar. 7, showed all of the hostages except Fox.

Memorial Service Planned

A memorial service to reflect Fox's life and work will be held 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Mar. 15, in Lehman Auditorium.

The service will include hymns, scripture reading, visuals, candlelighting and reflections by persons who knew Fox, with an emphasis both on "the meaning of Tom's life and mission as a Christian peacemaker and remembering his three fellow CPTers and others still being held captive" in Iraq.

The service is open to everyone.

Professors and Staff Respond

Lisa Schirch, associate professor of conflict studies in EMU's Center for Justice and Peacemaking, had Fox in her "strategic nonviolence" course at EMU.

"May we all hold every human being in Iraq in our prayers as the trauma, anger, fear and sadness rages on and on," Dr. Schirch said in response to Fox's death. "And may we all find a way to renew our own personal efforts to transform those energies into something more positive.

"Let us remember Tom for the bravery and hopefulness that came with his determination to be in Iraq to monitor human rights and provide a different kind of American presence there - one that sought to be in solidarity with the suffering," Schirch added.

EMU President Loren Swartzentruber, in Florida during EMU's spring break for development contacts, issued a statement to the campus community:

"Tom's death, while serving with Christian Peacemaker Teams, reminds us of the tragic deaths of people of all nationalities through senseless violence around the world. I agree completely with a statement from Carol Rose, co-director of Christian Peacemaker Teams, quoted in the news - 'In response to Tom's passing, we ask that everyone set aside inclinations to vilify or demonize others, no matter what they have done.'"

"Please pray for Tom's family, co-workers, friends and for CJP faculty member Lisa Schirch and others on our campus who knew him personally," the president said.

'Break the Cycle'

Ruth Zimmerman, co-director of EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, said that "we all have a responsibility to break the cycle of violence and vengeance that has caused the deaths of tens of thousands in Iraq, including Tom Fox.

"The answer is not more violence, more vengeance," Zimmerman said. "The answer is more people with the courage and faith of Tom Fox to stand up and say, 'Love, forgiveness, and restorative justice are the answers, not violent retribution.'"

Fox is the first to be killed in "the line of duty" of the 2,000 peace workers that have received training through EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, but many others have been threatened and some have been beaten, said Zimmerman.

EMU alumni have been following Fox’s fate with close attention and much prayer. Zimmerman said she is "especially proud of EMU’s Muslim alumni and visiting professors who have bravely spoken on behalf of the hostages."

'Hope for a Better Future'

Khadija Ossoble Ali, a Somali Muslim who earned a masters degree in conflict transformation at EMU in 2000, responded to news of Fox’s death with this e-mailed comment to her fellow alumni: "He was the hope for a better future for all of us who have been kept hostage by a small minority in the name of religion.

"May we all pray for Tom, for his bravery and courageous work and may god bless him and give us the strength to succeed and transform our despair to a more peaceful coexistence as human beings."

EMU held prayer vigils for the four kidnapped CTP workers on campus Nov. 30, 2005 and Jan. 30, 2006. Fox was scheduled to speak at EMU in February this year.

Additional campus responses are likely to be planned at EMU after classes resume Monday, Mar. 13.

— article by: Jim Bishop and Bonnie Lofton; posted March 13, 2006