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Parents of slain aid worker speak out

‘He has chosen to believe in the good’
“Peter’s life is evidence that he’s been right all along – one person can make a difference,” said Paula Kassig on Monday during a news conference in which she and her husband, Ed, spoke publicly for the first time about their son, Peter Kassig, who was killed by the Islamic State.

INDIANAPOLIS – The parents of an Indiana aid worker who was beheaded by Islamic State militants said Monday their hearts are battered by their son’s death, but they believe his life is proof “one person can make a difference.”

Ed and Paula Kassig of Indianapolis read a brief statement in their first public comments since learning Sunday that their 26-year-old son had been killed.

“In 26 years, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand more of the harsh realities of life than most of us can imagine,” Paula Kassig said of her son, Peter, who changed his first name to Abdul-Rahman after converting to Islam during captivity. “But rather than letting the darkness overwhelm him, he has chosen to believe in the good – in himself and in others.

“Peter’s life is evidence that he’s been right all along – one person can make a difference.”

Kassig, a former Army Ranger, was captured Oct. 1, 2013, while delivering aid in Syria through a relief organization he founded.

In October, their son appeared in another video released by the Islamic State group that showed the beheading of a fellow aid worker, Britain’s Alan Henning. The militants vowed that Kassig would be next, leading his parents to plead publicly for mercy while stressing his humanitarian work and conversion to Islam.

The Islamic Society of North America calling it “barbaric and un-Islamic.”

“It’s just mind-boggling, man’s inhumanity to man,” Indianapolis resident Maria Campbell said at Just Judy’s Restaurant, not far from the Kassig home. “There are children over there that aren’t being helped today with skill sets that he had, there are moms who will lose their children because this was done by some other group.”

His parents asked for prayers for peace at sunset Monday and requested “the time and privacy to mourn, cry – and yes, forgive – and begin to heal.”

A memorial service in the Muslim and Christian faiths was being planned for this weekend.



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