There was international shock and outrage over the videotaped beheading of American journalist James Foley by Islamic State militants. Foley was abducted in Syria in late 2012. He had not been heard from until this week when ISIS released the video of Foley’s death, along with their demands that the U.S. cease airstrikes in Iraq. Muslim groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations denounced the killing, saying it violated Islamic beliefs. President Obama also condemned the act and pledged to continue fighting ISIS.

President Obama: “Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents. No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day.”

Foley was a Catholic and also had been kidnapped before in 2011 while reporting in Libya. After the ordeal, he wrote in a letter to the magazine of his alma mater, Marquette University, saying that “prayer was the glue” that enabled his freedom.