From a Western perspective, it’s a bad bit of PR.

ISIS — which purports to fight for a world where an Islamic Caliphate is dominant — has released a video purportedly showing that it has beheaded Abdul-Rahman Kassig, an American citizen.

This Muslim convert was known as Peter Kassig before he headed to Syria to work in civilian relief efforts.

Have cooler heads (if that term can even be applied to ISIS leadership) lost control of their troops? What possible reason could there be for an Islamic State to kill a Muslim convert? Isn’t one of their tenets that all people should be (or become) Muslim?