The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has released a video of its militants beheading the kidnapped journalist Steven Sotloff, another of the group's acts of unspeakable barbarity and cruelty. On Wednesday, less than a week earlier, his mother Shirley Sotloff released this video via the New York Times appealing directly to ISIS and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for her son's release.
Shirley Sotloff, in her plea, addressed al-Baghdadi by his self-appointed title of caliph — what other choice did she have? — and pointed out, correctly, that her son "traveled to the Middle East to chronicle the suffering of Muslims at the hand of tyrants."
"We have not seen Steven for over a year and we miss him very much," she said into the camera, asking ISIS to "follow the example set by the Prophet Mohammed, who protected people of the book."
Her son was 31 years old.
