"it was done out of a type of ransom to put a stop to the current war but
more specifically the mass killings of innocent iraqi bystandars to US launched
missles."
"...ISIS posted a video to YouTube depicting Foley reading a prepared state-
ment urging Americans to stop their support for the U.S. government for its
bombing campaign against ISIS targets. The video then shows his beheading as
well as revealing that ISIS is holding another American journalist named Steven
Joel Sotloff and will kill him unless U.S. President Barack Obama halts air-
strikes against ISIS."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Wright_Foley
God and religion:
"ISIS is known for its extreme interpretation of the Islamic faith and sharia
law and its brutal violence, which is directed at Shia Muslims, indigenous As-
syrian, Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and
Mandeans in particular. It has at least 4,000 fighters in its ranks in Iraq
who, in addition to attacks on government and military targets, have claimed
responsibility for attacks that have killed thousands of civilians. ISIS had
close links with al-Qaeda until 2014, but in February of that year, after an
eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with the group, reportedly
for its brutality and 'notorious intractability.'
"ISIS’s original aim was to establish a caliphate in the Sunni-majority re-
gions of Iraq. Following its involvement in the Syrian Civil War, this expand-
ed to include controlling Sunni-majority areas of Syria. A caliphate was pro-
claimed on 29 June 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—now known as Amir al-Mu'minin
Caliph Ibrahim—was named as its caliph, and the group was renamed the Islamic
State."
See the article below for much more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_State_of_Iraq_and_the_Levant
"Islamists believe that Islam fuses religion and politics, with normative
political values determined by the divine texts. It is argued that this has
historically been the case and the secularist/modernist efforts at secularizing
politics are little more than jahiliyyah (ignorance), kafir (unbelief), irtidad
(apostasy) and atheism. 'Those who participated in secular politics were
raising the flag of revolt against Allah and his messenger.'"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_and_secularism