Indiana man beheaded in Syria remembered in Muslim prayer

FISHERS, Indiana: Muslims in Indiana held a funeral service for Abdul- Rahman Kassig, formerly known as Peter, who was beheaded by Islamic State militants in Syria after being held captive for a year.
Kassig adopted Islam while he was a hostage. His family said he made a sincere conversion in a process that began before he was captured by Islamic State, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria and is the target of US bombings.
Friends and family of different faiths attended the funeral service in Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb, which included a sermon by a prominent Syrian exile, Muslim scholar Shaykh Muhammad Al-Yaqoubi, formerly Imam of the Grand Umayyad Mosque in Damascus.
“He took every risk in order to help the Syrian people, to remove some of their tragedy, to offer them some relief,” Al-Yaqoubi said. He called Kassig “one of our brothers who sacrificed his life for the sake of God.” He offered condolences to the Kassigs, calling their son a great hero “who carried in his heart the principles of Islam even before becoming a Muslim.”
Kassig’s parents, Ed and Paula Kassig attended the service. During their son’s captivity, the Kassigs repeatedly called on Islamic State to spare their son, who became the fifth European or American captive killed by the militants. They said that they adopted Kassig as a newborn.