At the end of the video featuring ISIS beheading victim Alan Henning, the next victim is presented. His name is Peter Kassig and he is an American Army vet who converted to Islam while in captivity; that doesn’t seem to be enough. Like the others, Kassig appears to be a leftist who is sympathetic to Palestinians and Syrian opposition forces.
His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, remained silent for the past year in the hope their son’s life would be spared but issued a statement after the video was released.
They said their son had become a Muslim during his time in captivity, changing his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig, and that they had learned from other hostages that his faith had brought him comfort.
“He grew to love and admire the Syrian people and felt at home there,” said Ed Kassig. “Our son’s journey culminated in him embracing Islam. Sadly he was taken captive and is not free to continue his life’s work serving the people of the region.”
If Kassig converted to Islam, ISIS isn’t following Islam, which might make those who claim the Islamic State is not Islamic, technically correct. Then again, under Muruna (a Sunni tactic), it’s ok for Muslims to kill Muslims if there is a greater cause so it’s actually a wash. After all, forced conversions are supposed to mean you get to live. According to Islam, non-Muslims are supposed to be given three choices – live according to the Sharia, as part of a subjugated class; convert to Islam; or die.
As someone who apparently took the path of conversion, Kassig appears to have been given a fourth choice – convert to Islam and die anyway.
He worked as a volunteer medical assistant in border hospitals treating Palestinian refugees and later families fleeing the growing Syrian conflict.
Later that year, Mr Kassig founded his own relief group, called Special Emergency Response and Assistance, delivering medical aid in conflict zones.
“This work is important for the message that it sends to people back home, that one of the best aspects of the American way of life is our ability to come together in the face of adversity and to stand beside those who might need a helping hand,” he said at the time.
“In five years, if I can look back on all of this and say that our organisation is able to truly help people, that I was able so share a little bit of hope and that I never stopped learning then I will know this all stood for something,” he said.
It was on one of his trips delivering food and medical supplies to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria that he was taken hostage in October last year.
Like other captives, details of his disappearance were subject to a news blackout as part of an effort to secure his freedom.
So far, there have been four westerners beheaded on video by ISIS. To varying degrees, each one of them was sympathetic to opposition forces that betrayed them or failed to protect them. Kassig, who converted to Islam, is the next in line and is headed toward the same fate.
When will leftists wake up and realize that their fellow leftists are being beheaded by ISIS?