COLUMBIA, Mo. – Students at the University of Missouri followed through with plans to burn the ISIS flag yesterday and the event drew quite a crowd.

The anti-ISIS rally held by the MU-Young Americans for Liberty yesterday was designed to honor the victims of terrorism, particularly those killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The event kicked off with a hot dog barbecue, featured a moment of silence for the victims, and culminated with the burning of the ISIS flag in front of hundreds of students as they chanted “USA! USA!,” ABC 17 reports.

News crews and photographers fixed their cameras on a small fire pit on the center of campus around 5 p.m., when MU-Young Americans for Liberty President Ian Paris doused a homemade ISIS flag with lighter fluid and ignited it with a barbecue lighter.

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MU-Young Americans for Liberty secured an open flame permit and other permissions from the university and local fire officials before the event that drew spectators from as far away as Kansas City and St. Louis, according to the news site.

Many spectators carried American flags and donned patriotic attire, and most recorded the burning, which was broadcast live on ABC 17 and posted to the station’s Facebook page. The crowd cheered wildly when Paris set the flag ablaze.

ICYMI: ABC 17 News was live when large crowds gathered at the MU columns this afternoon where a student burned an ISIS flag. We confirmed the student went through all the proper channels to get approval to burn the flag on campus.

Posted by ABC 17 News on Thursday, October 8, 2015

“ISIS has violated the liberties and freedoms of millions of people through genocide, deadly religious persecutions, modern-day enslavement, sexual violence, use of a chemical weapon, beheadings and mass executions,” MU-Young Americans for Liberty wrote in announcing the event.

Paris said he received a lot of support, from students and the community, in organizing the flag burning, and he hopes it will spark ongoing conversations about the terrorist organization’s human rights violations.

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“There’s a coalition of students that are coming together,” he said, according to the College Fix. “I am hoping we use this to unify our voice and maintain our message. I want this event to open the dialogue … about U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East rather than it just be a one-off thing.”

Paris said his issue isn’t with Islam in general, but rather the radical factions of followers who kill in the name of their religion.

“I consider it a very wholesome religion,” he said, according to The Washington Times. “It’s not mine in particular, but I am filled with regret and sadness when people around me associate Islam with ISIS. ISIS has perverted and distorted the true values of Islam, which I consider one of the greatest atrocities they have committed.”

Nearly all folks who commented about the event online supported the flag burning, but a few thought it was a bad idea.

“I’m against the ISIS group 100%. I’m also a MU student and I don’t think we should have done this,” Shannon Holmes posted. “I get the bigger picture but still … bad idea.”

“Right or wrong, he just put a big target on the campus,” Chris Rademan posted.

Paris told College Fix he’s not scared of retribution.

“If I succumb to the fear of ISIS objecting to my actions, I have succumbed to the terrorists,” he said.