Public Florida Memorial Service Planned For Slain Journalist Steven Sotloff

A Florida service has been planned for the American journalist recently beheaded by Islamic State militants near Iraq.

The Friday memorial service at Temple Beth Am in the town of Pinecrest, Florida will be open to the public, Rabbi Terry Bookman told media outlets. The memorial will be honoring Steven Sotloff, the American journalist who, earlier this week, was barbarically beheaded by Islamic State militants in a video uploaded to the internet.

A spokesperson for the Sotloff family, Barak Barfi, said in a statement earlier this week that the 31-year-old journalist was not a "war junkie," but was rather dedicated to telling stories of the pain and suffering endured by the vulnerable in unstable Middle Eastern countries.

Barfi said that Sotloff, through his work, had "tried to find good concealed in a world of darkness," adding that his family, based in Miami, will "not allow our enemies to hold us hostage with the sole weapon they possess — fear."

Sotloff is the second American journalist to be beheaded by the Islamic State in the past few weeks. The terrorist organization also released a video in late August showing the beheading of journalist James Foley, who had been kidnapped in Syria in 2012. Sotloff was kidnapped in 2013.

Sotloff's mother, Shirley, had released a video last week pleading with leaders of the Islamic State to grant her son amnesty, saying he is a humble journalist who is not responsible for America's foreign policy that has included air striking Iraq in an effort to eradicate the Islamic State.

"Steven has no control over the actions of the U.S. government. He's an innocent journalist," Shirley pled in the video.

U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have pledged to continue fighting to destroy the "cancer" that is the Islamic State, saying they will not let the fear tactics of the extremist group bully them into submission.