Parents Release Letter From US ISIS Hostage

'Hardest part is not knowing,' writes the former Peter Kassig
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 6, 2014 5:03 AM CDT
Updated Oct 6, 2014 7:58 AM CDT
Parents Release Letter From US ISIS Hostage
This undated photo provided by the Kassig family shows Peter Kassig standing in front of a truck filled with supplies for Syrian refugees.   (AP Photo/Courtesy Kassig Family)

An American ISIS hostage says he's "scared to die, but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all." The words come from a letter Abdul-Rahman Kassig, formerly known as Peter Kassig, wrote to his parents; they received the letter on June 2, the BBC reports. After ISIS threatened to kill Kassig in a video showing the beheading of a British hostage, Kassig's parents decided to release parts of the letter "so the world can understand why we and so many people care for him and admire him."

"I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through," the 26-year-old writes. "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," adds the aid worker, who was headed to a city in Syria when he was captured on Oct. 1 last year. Kassig's "journey toward Islam" started before his capture; he voluntarily converted shortly afterward, his parents say, citing a former hostage. "In terms of my faith, I pray every day and I am not angry about my situation in that sense," he writes, as the AP reports. "I am in a dogmatically complicated situation here, but I am at peace with my belief." (More Peter Kassig stories.)

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