Diane Foley: 'If we want peace in the world, we must find ways to forgive'

James Foley in 2011

The mother of the first Western hostage killed by Islamic State, Catholic journalist James Foley, reflects on hope, grief, and a faith that conquers hatred and death, in an on-line interview to be released on Good Friday. In August 2014, freelance journalist James Foley became the first Western hostage to be publicly beheaded by 'Jihadi John'. The atrocity ended nearly two years of captivity at the hands of Islamic State in Syria.

In an in-depth interview to mark the first Good Friday since Jim's killing, his mother Diane explains how she has been able to forgive her son's unrepentant killer.

"I find him a tragic figure", she says. "He is filled with an unbelievable amount of hate. If we ever want peace in this world, we must find ways to forgive one another. If we continue hating one another, it's one atrocity after another. So at some point, we must forgive if we want any peace".

The interview was recorded for Things Unseen, a free online radio programme. In conversation with Mark Dowd, Diane reflects on how, in the absence of any direct communication, it was prayer that kept her connection with her son alive after he was kidnapped in 2012.

"When I prayed, that's when I felt closest to Jim", she says, "and the freed hostages said that Jim said the same thing: that when he prayed, he also felt very close to his family. So that was our connection throughout those years." Reports that Jim converted to Islam in captivity, she says, never worried her. She believes he merely used to Muslim prayer times to commune with God in his own way.

"All I do know for sure is that he was very close to God. Because Jim had a tremendous amount of courage and compassion to all the other hostages, and that could only have happened if he had been close to God. Only God knows where his heart was at the end".

The anguish she experienced during the years of Jim's captivity, Diane says, helped her understand Mary's anguish under the cross in a new and much deeper way.

"Knowing that God was suffering with me", she explains, "that when I cried, God was crying with me, has been a huge strength to me. And my challenge is to keep walking in faith like Mary did, even though I don't have all the answers".

The full interview will be available to download from Good Friday morning at 0730 British Summer Time on www.thingsunseen.co.uk.

The programme includes a recording of the Stabat Mater by Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti, sung by the London-based chamber choir, Coro.