Barack Obama

Steven Sotloff Was a “Gentle Soul”: Family

"He wanted to give voice to those who had none," family spokesman Barak Barfi said.

The family of murdered Miami journalist Steven Sotloff broke their silence Wednesday evening, saying their son was "no hero" — just "a gentle soul that this world will be without."

“He didn’t want to be a modern-day Lawrence of Arabia,” family spokesman Barak Barfi said. “He merely wanted to give voice to those who had none. Steve was no hero. Like all of us, he was a mere man who tried to find good concealed in a world of darkness. And if it did not exist, he tried to create it.”

Family spokesman Barak Barfi made a statement Wednesday following the beheading of South Florida journalist Steven Sotloff.

The Sotloff family had remained silent since the Islamist terrorist group ISIS released a video Tuesday that purported to show Sotloff being beheaded.

Sotloff, a 31-year-old Miami native who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, had vanished a year ago in Syria and was not seen again until he appeared in the recent ISIS video that showed fellow journalist James Foley's beheading.

In that video, Sotloff, dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, was threatened with death.

In the second video, distributed Tuesday and titled "A Second Message to America," Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the Islamic State, the extremist group that has conquered wide swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq and declared itself a caliphate.

“Steve had a gentle soul that this world will be without, but his spirit will endure in our hearts,” Barfi said. “Today we grieve, this week we mourn, but we will emerge from this ordeal. Our village is strong. We will not allow our enemies to hold us hostage with the sole weapon they possess, fear."

Barfi also read a message in Arabic to the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, saying he wanted to question him.

"Steven visited the Arabic people because he loved the Arabic people and all the Muslim people," Barfi said. "I have a message to Abu Bakr. You said Ramadan is a month of mercy but where is your mercy?

"You speak of Islam and the Holy Koran but I know the Koranic verses. Abu Bakr, I am ready to debate you. I come in peace, I don't have a sword in my hand, I am ready for your answer."

Sotloff's family has met with Rabbi Terry Bookman of Temple Beth-Am who said both are weak with grief.

"He broke down for the first time,"  Rabbi Bookman said of Sotloff's father Arthur. "He wept in my arms, and I wept with him. And, Shirley is, you know, she's on the floor. It's just overwhelming, you know. It's her boy."

Sotloff's job in the Middle East and the fact that he had dual citizenship in Israel and the United States made his family feel like he could be targeted. His mother is a teacher at Temple Beth-Am and staffers there erased all onlines ties as a precaution to try to keep Sotloff safe.

"We scrubbed our website to create no connection," said Rabbi Terry Bookman. "We took her picture off the website. We just didn't want anything that might endanger him."

The statement from the family came as the public honored his life with a candlelight service Wednesday night on the campus of the University of Central Florida, where Sotloff attended.

In South Florida, a memorial for Sotloff will be held Friday at 1 p.m. at Temple Beth Am at 5950 Southwest 88th Street in Kendall. The public is invited to attend.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the deaths of Sotloff and of Foley before him will only unite Americans, who he said won't forget their heinous killings.

Obama, who spoke while traveling in Estonia, said Americans will not be intimidated by the "horrific" violence of Islamic State militants, but vowed that "justice will be served."

"Today the prayers of the American people are with the family of a devoted and courageous journalist, Steven Sotloff," Obama said.

"Whatever these murderers think they will achieve by killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed," Obama said. "They have failed because like people around the world, Americans are repulsed by their barbarism, we will not be intimidated, their horrific acts only unite us as a country and stiffen our resolve to take the fight against these terrorists."

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Secretary of State John Kerry called the killing "an act of medieval savagery by a coward hiding behind a mask" in a statement released Wednesday.

"Barbarity, sadly, isn't new to our world. Neither is evil. We've taken the fight to it before, and we're taking the fight to it today," Kerry said. "When terrorists anywhere around the world have murdered our citizens, the United States held them accountable, no matter how long it took. And those who have murdered James Foley and Steven Sotloff in Syria should know that the United States will hold them accountable too, no matter how long it takes." 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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