World Bulletin / News Desk

Out of the 84 victims who died in the Nice attacks on France’s Bastille Day, at least 30 were Muslims, figures based on the types of funerals required by relatives released by local Nice authorities revealed Tuesday.

The Muslim victims came from or had roots in many different countries including Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, according to Otmane Aissaoui, head of a Nice mosque and president of the Union of Muslims of Alpes-Maritimes.

In response to the attack in Nice, Aissaoui called for calm and social unity. “I fear the rise of anger, with politicians conflating all issues together,” he warned in comments made to local media.

“Everyone in our country has some share of responsibility: political and media elites, associations, imams, everyone needs to question themselves.”

One of the victims, Fatima Charrihi, 62, was a mother of seven and was born in Morocco. Aissaoui said she was a regular visitor of mosques. “What I can say is that she wore the Muslim veil, she practiced a balanced and fair Islam, a genuine Islam—not the Islam of the terrorists.”

“The authors of the attacks could not be Muslims because the very first victim was Muslim,” one of Charrihi’s daughters told public TV channel France 3.

Kawthar Ben Salem, a spokeswoman for the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes, said that Muslim funerals were being held for at least 30 of those who died during the Bastille Day attack, including men, women and children.

Source: MintPressNews/NYT