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."
