An aid worker from the US state of Indiana who has been threatened with beheading by the Islamic State group said in a June letter that he is afraid to die and is saddened by the pain that his captivity must be causing his family, his parents said on Sunday.
In a statement, 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 group formerly known as the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant, among other names, on Oct. 1 last year 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 on Saturday.
According to a former Islamic State hostage, Kassig voluntarily converted to Islam before December last year, 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 of our son’s long spiritual journey.”
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