INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana aid worker threatened with beheading by the Islamic State group said in a June letter that he’s afraid to die and is saddened by the pain his captivity must be causing his family, his parents said Sunday.
In a statement released to media, Ed and Paula Kassig said their 26-year-old son, Abdul-Rahman Kassig, thanked them for their strength and commitment. And he appeared to try to prepare them for his death.
“I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all,” Kassig said in the letter, according to his parents. “I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need.”
Kassig was taken captive by the Islamic State group Oct. 1, 2013, in Syria, where he was providing aid for refugees fleeing that country’s civil war.
The group said in a video after the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning last week that Kassig would be next. The Kassigs pleaded for their son’s freedom in a video statement released Saturday.
According to a former Islamic State hostage, Kassig voluntarily converted to Islam sometime between his capture and December 2013, the Kassigs said. He was known as Peter Kassig before his conversion.
The letter continues: “In terms of my faith, I pray every day and I am not angry about my situation in that sense. I am in a dogmatically complicated situation here, but I am at peace with my belief.”
The Kassigs say the complication appears to arise from his conversion but that they see this “as part our son’s long spiritual journey.”
According to the family, Kassig is a former Army Ranger who formed the aid organization Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, in Turkey to provide aid and assistance to Syrian refugees. He began delivering food and medical supplies to Syrian refugee camps in 2012 and is also a trained medical assistant who provided trauma care to injured Syrian civilians and helped train 150 civilians in providing medical aid.
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Kassig’s case is a good metaphor for US involvement in Syria’s civil war.