Rewarding Humanitarian Relief

"Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment of Shams (Syria), which keeps on striking our people, so it is only right that we continue to strike the neck of your people."
Masked Islamic State terrorist

"[They had hoped his captors would] hear the voice of reason". 
"Clearly they have shown they are incapable of this. These murderous people have proved outright they are not Muslim, hold absolutely no Islamic values and clearly could not demonstrate any mercy towards an innocent, selfless man. We pray justice will be swift for those fanatics."
Dr. Shameela Islam-Zulfiqar, Alan Henning's fellow aid worker

Obdurate they may be, but they clearly are Muslims, responding to the fanatical Salafist call to jihad as it is incumbent through the precepts of the Koran, upon all pious Muslims. That they show no restraint represents the very fact that there is no restraint within the Islamic canon of total surrender to Islam, and the obligation of all in the faith to promulgate its values and grow the number of its passionate adherents.

Seems that all kinds of Islamist entities made a bit of an effort to persuade the Islamic State militias to release this man, appealing to them to consider that British hostage Alan Henning travelled to where he was vulnerable to capture because he was empathetic to Muslims and wanted to give aid to Syrian child refugees. The Islamic scholars who issued a video on social media urging ISIS to release Mr. Henning are known to be of the fundamentalist Salafist school of thought. Their plea for mercy went unanswered.

Alan Henning. Photograph: family handout/PA

But then, Mr. Henning's death is not that far different in essence, from that of other Westerners who have empathized with Muslim refugees and who had gone out of their way to dedicate years of their lives to try to render humanitarian aid. In the end, their sacrifice on behalf of a people who have suffered their share of inhumane treatment at the pious hands of their own coreligionists didn't save them, either. In a sense, Mr. Henning's fate was preordained.

Mr. Henning accompanied an aid mission, delivering supplies and ambulances to a Syrian hospital when he was abducted, the only non-Muslim in the group. "It's all worthwhile when you see what is needed actually get where it needs to go ... no sacrifice we do is [anything] compared to what they (Syrians) are going through every day on a daily basis", his fellow aid workers stated in a video, while cheering on the presence of a non-Muslim on this mission.

But the presence of a non-Muslim is a potential coup for the jihadists who gleefully take them into custody for the purpose of extracting funds from agencies and governments only too willing to supply the terrorists with working capital to rescue their own. In the case of Mr. Henning, the British government's policy is not to surrender to such blackmail, and in any event, Mr. Henning's value to his captors was enhanced by the prospect of using him to demonstrate their contempt and hatred for the Western forces now aligned against their ongoing march for total domination of the region.

As in past such flamboyantly horrendous performances, yet another hostage was brought forward as representing the next in the series of beheadings played out for the benefit of a horrified world watching in fascination as the Islamic State enjoyed their frontal stage prominence in world affairs.The video that celebrated the beheading of the British taxi driver began with footage of a news clip announcing British involvement with the U.S. in airstrikes against ISIS/ISIL.

US aid worker Abdul-Rahman (formerly Peter) Kassig delivering aid with the relief organisation he founded, Sera. Photograph: Sera

The next in line for this barbaric treatment in the Islamic State's tit-for-tat strike: You hit us, we hit you, is a 26-year-old American who enlisted in the U.S. Army a decade ago, becoming a Ranger, and serving in the 75th Ranger Regiment, an Army special operations unit. After his abduction while he was engaged in providing humanitarian aid to Syrians through an aid organization he had himself founded, American Peter Kassig converted to Islam, and took the name of Abdul-Rahman.

"As Muslims around the world, including our son Abdul-Rahman Kassig, celebrate Eid al-Adha, the faith and sacrifice of Ibrahim, and the mercy of Allah, we appeal to those holding our son to show the same mercy and set him free."
 "There is so much that is beyond our control. We asked our government to change its actions, but like our son, we have no more control over the US government than you have over the breaking of dawn."
Paula and Ed Kassig, parents of Abdul-Rahman Kassig

Much good it will do them.