Isil hostage Peter Kassig 'is now devout Muslim’, says ex-captive

Rasa - Nicolas Henin, a former cellmate of Peter Kassig and John Cantlie, reveals intimate details of their lives as hostages of Islamic State.

News ID: 1345

Date: 09 October 2014 - 01:31

RNA - The Western hostage next in line to be murdered by Islamic State terrorists is now a devout Muslim who prays five times a day and fasts twice a week, despite being starved by his captors, Daily Telegraph reports.

Peter Kassig, 26, who has changed his name to Abdul Rahman, is one of a number of Western prisoners to have converted to Islam whilst being held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in Syria, according to Nicolas Henin, a former cellmate.

Mr Henin, 39, a French freelance journalist spent four of the months he was held captive sharing a cell with Mr Kassig, an American aid worker, and British journalist John Cantlie.

He was also imprisoned alongside Alan Henning, David Haines, Steven Sotloff and James Foley, the western charity workers and journalists who have all since been slaughtered by their captors on film.

Speaking to Daily Telegraph just days after Mr Kassig was paraded on camera by Isil – wearing a Guantánamo Bay era orange jump suit – and named as the next Westerner to be killed, Mr Henin, who was released in April this year under a deal secured by the French government, revealed intimate details of their lives as hostages.

The men were held in a single, sunless, cell. A bucket in the corner was their lavatory, and they were made to survive on the barest scraps of food.

"Well the routine was, well, it was mostly waiting for food, because we never received enough," he said.

"Peter would share a lot of his food with others, but was always looking for sweets. He was always looking for some extra marmalade in exchange for something salty."

The months passed in a mix of boredom and terror said Mr Henin.

For days they would have nothing to do. Mr Henin said they devised a rudimentary board game out of "small pieces of cardboard".

At other moments, one or more of the hostages would become the playthings of the guards. They were regularly beaten.

In this environment, a number of the hostages, including Peter, found solace in practicing Islam, Mr Henin said: "In our group of hostages there were a few who converted, and they were practicing Islam with the required routine.

They practised the five daily prayers and would even sometimes perform two extra prayers that are not mandatory at night."

"Sometimes they would fast on Mondays and Thursdays, which are extra fasts. Just like during [the Holy Muslim celebration of Ramadan] they didn't eat or drink or do anything from sunrise to sunset … like good Muslim observants, or dedicated Muslims."

Whilst Mr Henin did not elaborate on which of the other hostages had converted, he gave a detailed and intimate portrayal how Mr Kassig had gone from being a man who served briefly in Iraq as a US army ranger, to become a devout worshipper.

Mr Henin said that Mr Kassig's conversion was motivated by a genuine desire to become a Muslim, and not by the coercion of his captors.

"Altogether our captors were not very good at psychology. But they were extremely good at preventing us from having any Stockholm syndrome," said Mr Henin, implying that their treatment had been too bad for them to ever feel close to their prison guards.

"Peter converted shortly after he was captured. When I first met him [in December last year], he was already introducing himself as Abdul Rahman, which was the name he decided to take right after his conversion," said Mr Henin.

Mr Kassig was seized by Isil extremists on 1 October in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria where he had been delivering humanitarian aid.

The former hostage said that Isil captors had found the conversions of some of the captives "uncomfortable", as it made it more difficult to justify keeping them hostage, but added that ultimately it had made no difference in their treatment.

On Friday he was threatened with death in a chilling video showing the beheading of 47-year-old British aid worker Alan Henning.

Britain's top Muslim imams condemned Isil's actions last month and urged them to spare the life of Alan Henning, who was captured whilst on an aid convoy run my a Muslim charity.

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