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7 July 1951—9 March 2006

Standing with the Dehumanized

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) is an organization founded by members of historic peace churches that sends volunteers to hot spots across the globe where the well-being of local people is threatened by violence. The hope is that the presence of nonviolent witnesses with ties to international media will tamp down the level of violence. As Peacemakers says, its goal is “to get in the way.”

Tom Fox joined the CPT following a twenty-year career as a musician in the Marine Corps Band and after becoming a Quaker. In 2004 he joined three other CPT members on a mission to Iraq. Their work in Baghdad consisted of helping the families of imprisoned Iraqis secure financial assistance, making sure that medical supplies wound up in hospitals and clinics instead of on the black market, and working to build a strong CPT presence in Iraq.

In late November 2005, Fox and his fellow CPT volunteers were kidnapped by Al-Qaeda guerrillas who threatened to execute the four men unless the United States released all Iraqi prisoners. Three of the hostages were eventually rescued after being held for five months. Fox wasn’t one of them. His body was found on 9 March 2006. He had been shot several times and dumped on a garbage heap in Baghdad. Cuts and bruises on his body suggested that he might have been tortured.

It’s still unclear why Fox was singled out for execution. Perhaps it was because of his service in the Marine Corps. Before his abduction, knowing the danger he and his fellow CPT volunteers faced, Fox made his friends promise that they wouldn’t seek vengeance if he was abducted.

During his time in Iraq, Fox wrote a blog recording his activities and impressions. In an entry titled “Why are we here?”—posted the day before he was snatched by Al-Qaeda—Fox wrote this: “If I understand the message of God, his response to that question is that we are to take part in the creation of the Peaceable Realm of God. As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exists within us. We are here to stand with those being dehumanized by oppressors and stand firm against that dehumanization. We are here to stop people, including ourselves, from dehumanizing any of God’s children, no matter how much they dehumanize their own souls.”

In the way he conducted himself during the last few years of his life, as well as in the way he died, Fox truly did stand with the victims of dehumanization.