I’m scared but I know you love me
Hostage’s letter to parents
THE American aid worker beheaded by Islamic State fanatics had told in a letter home of his fears of dying.
Peter Kassig, whose murder was revealed yesterday in an Islamic State video, had said to his parents: ‘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.
‘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.
‘Don’t worry Dad, if I do go down, I won’t go thinking anything but what I know to be true. That you and mom love me more than the moon and the stars.’
Yesterday Ed and Paula Kassig said they wanted their son to be
‘Compassion and courage’
remembered f or his work and the love he shared with friends and family.
The couple, from Indianapolis, Indiana, also appealed to the media not to show the video released by IS because the images played ‘into the hands of the hostage takers’.
They said: ‘ We are aware of the news reports being circulated about our treasured son and are waiting for confirmation from the government as to the authenticity of these reports.
‘The family respectfully asks that the news media avoid playing into the hostage takers’ hands and refrain from publishing or broadcasting photographs or video distributed by the hostage takers.
‘We prefer our son is written about and remembered for his important work and the love he shared with friends and family, not in the manner the hostage takers would use to manipulate Americans and further their cause.’
The 26-year- old aid worker, who converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman, was taken hostage in Syria by the Islamic State in October 2013. And his mother had worn a headscarf as a sign of respect for her son’s new faith.
Mr Kassig had served in the US military in 2006 and was deployed to the Iraq war before being medically discharged a year later.
He f ormed the organisation Special Emergency Response and Assistance, or SERA, in Turkey to help Syrian refugees.
Mitchell Prothero, a journalist who met Mr Kassig in 2012 in Beirut, was among those paying tribute to him yesterday.
‘His murder is a senseless crime against someone who was willing to risk his life alongside people in a foreign land, without being paid or even congratulated, simply because he couldn’t bear to not use his skills as a medic to help them,’ he said.
‘His murder, as much as it devastates his family and friends, is just as big a loss to the people of Syria and Lebanon, and the world.’
Mr , who writes for the US-based McClatchy news service, added: ‘Selfless compassion and courage exist in people everywhere, but I’ve met few people who had as much of both as Peter Kassig.’
In his letter to his parents, Mr Kassig had told of his ordeal, saying: ‘This is the hardest thing a man can go through, the stress and fear are incredible.
‘They tell us you have abandoned us and/or don’t care but of course we know you are doing everything you can and more.’