BRITISH AID WORKER Alan Henning travelled to Syria to help victims of a vicious civil war but became himself a casualty of the conflict’s brutality at the hands of Islamic State fighters.
Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed late Friday the “brutal murder” of Henning by IS jihadists who released a video showing the apparent beheading of the British hostage.
The 47-year-old left behind his wife and two teenage children late last year to drive with an unofficial humanitarian aid convoy to help internally displaced people in the war-ravaged nation.
His wife Barbara has called her husband “a peaceful, selfless man” who left his job as a taxi driver in Manchester, northwest England, “to help those most in need.”
When he was taken he was driving an ambulance full of food and water to be handed out to anyone in need. His purpose for being there was no more and no less. This was an act of sheer compassion.
“I cannot see how it could assist any State’s cause to allow the world to see a man like Alan dying,” she added.
Nicknamed “Gadget” for his love for new technology, he was not a professional aid worker but friends and colleagues said he was touched by the suffering of Syria’s civilian population.
He joined a group of Muslim friends who founded the charity “Rochdale Aid4Syria” and travelled to Syria once or twice before.
Catrin Nye from the BBC Asian Network, who met him before his final trip, said he had “Aid4Syria” tattooed on his arm.
She described him as a “very likeable” and “funny” man “inspired” by friends who had been to Syria.
“He had been into a refugee camp and it had been a life-changing experience,” she said.
He described holding the children… and how that really affected him. He told me he had to go back.
His friend Mohamed Elhaddad, company director of the UK Arabic Society, said Henning was “good at DIY and… a useful person to have on the trips.”
“Alan is a man who is full of compassion,” said Kasim Jameel, a friend and fellow taxi driver from the Manchester area, who also helped organise the convoys, The Times newspaper reported.
Imams’ pleas ignored
Jameel said Henning had insisted on taking part in the convoy instead of spending the New Year holidays with his family.
“I could tell a lot of stories about the good that Alan has done and about how, as a non-Muslim, he has helped Muslims who have suffered in the conflict,” he said.
Henning also took an active role in helping to raise the funds to buy the medical equipment and food aid he was bringing over.
The convoy left Britain on December 20 and was stopped shortly after crossing over from Turkey, the reports said.
“They put everyone in a room and started to question people. They were speaking English because no one on the convoy spoke Arabic,” a friend told The Times on condition of anonymity.
“They were a mixture of Libyans and Algerians and they gave Alan a hard time because he was not a Muslim,” he said.
Other men who had been travelling with Henning were released.
Several British papers said he was then taken to Raqqa in northern Syria which Islamic State claims as its capital.
After his capture, Henning reportedly told other hostages “don’t worry about me”, saying he would be free “in no time because I’m just an aid worker”.
Indeed, his wife claimed to have assurances that he had been cleared in a Sharia court of being a spy.
His plight led to tens of imams from across Britain calling on IS jihadists for his release.
“Anyone undertaking a humanitarian act is paving his or her way to receive help from heaven,” they wrote in a letter sent to the Independent newspaper.
“In contrast, the senseless kidnapping and despicable threats to Mr Henning cannot be justified anywhere in the Koran.”
His wife also revealed that she had recently received audio footage of her husband begging for his life.
But the pleas fell on deaf ears, and the worst fears of Henning’s family and friends were realised on Friday with the release of a video which appeared to show his execution and the confirmation of his death by the British government.
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