Goodbye my friend

I will always remember Tom Fox as a dear friend and the truest model of Christ-like nonviolence that I am likely to meet, and whom I aspire to emulate. Amidst the chaos, confusion and stress of Iraq, Tom managed to maintain a steady calm, a consistent faith and a gentle sense of humour. When my heart was rushing at 100 beats a minute in fear, worry or anger about something going on around us in Iraq, talking to Tom was like bathing in a cool pond and gradually exhaling all the anxiety.

This photo is from January 2005, when I first met Tom during my CPT training in Chicago. We were in Iraq together for much of the year. He was with me on April 20 when I learnt that there was a specific and imminent death threat against me, and prayed and talked with me as I discerned what to do. His support was critical during that most frightening time. (14 March - Reflecting on Tom's death, it seems unfair that I should have escaped through a tip-off, whereas Tom - who was far more deserving, has children and could have contributed so much to Iraq - did not).

His death is a loss to us all but I know that he would not consider it a waste. He was well aware of the dangers because his first stay in Iraq was in the frightening days of Autumn 2004 after an intense spate of kidnappings including many friends of CPT. Tom would hope that his death would focus attention not on himself but on the suffering of 25 million Iraqis trapped in the chaos which has been created by the Occupation. I hope that he will be an inspiration to thousands to chose the path of nonviolence, costly though it can be.

The reports are saying that there is evidence that Tom was beaten and tortured. I suspect that amidst his pain he would have cried out, like Jesus, for forgiveness for his oppressors. The people who killed Tom must have dehumanized him, seeing him as "an American" or "a hostage" but nonetheless Tom valued them as precious children of God. He shared his perspective in a poignant reflection "Why are we here?", written on 25 November, the day before his kidnapping:

"As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. U.S. forces in their quest to hunt down and kill "terrorists" are, as a result of this dehumanizing word, not only killing "terrorists," but also killing innocent Iraqis: men, women and children in the various towns and villages. It seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I dehumanize a person... As soon as I rob a fellow human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury and death. "Why are we here?" We are here to root out all aspects of dehumanization that exist 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."

For me the defining picture of Tom was taken in May 2005 when he dressed in an orange jumpsuit and joined with Iraqi Shia colleagues from Muslim Peacemaker Teams to sweep streets in the devestated Sunni city of Fallujah. Here was Tom engaging in a humble act of physical service in support of Iraqi colleagues seeking reconciliation between communities and a restoration of the destruction wrought by the Occupation.

CPT statement on Tom's death

Sheila Provencher (CPT team mate)

Excerpts from Tom's blog

Electronic Iraq's memorial

Charles Sullivan constrasting Tom's Christianity with Bush.