Syrian Humanitarian Aid Group Holds Vigil For Journalist James Foley

A Syrian humanitarian nonprofit group organized a vigil for American journalist James Foley in Boston Saturday. Representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations were to participate in the commemoration.

NuDay Syria organized the event to honor the slain journalists’ belief in freedom for the Syrian people.

“He really had that connection to the Syrian people,” Founder of NuDay Syria Nadia Alawashe told WBZ, Boston. “He really believed that they deserved freedom like everybody else.”

Foley, 40, was beheaded at the hands of the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, in a video released Tuesday. He worked as a freelance journalist in Syria before he was kidnapped in November 2012.

After the news of his death, Foley’s family set up the James Foley Scholarship Fund at Marquette University in Wisconsin, the journalist’s alma mater.

“We’re reminiscing about all the memories we have as a family,” said Foley’s sister Katie in an interview with Katie Couric at Yahoo.

The vigil was set for 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Rochester Commons in Boston.