The Muslim victims in Paris

The Guardian reports:

Their Muslim faith did not spare them from the terrorists’ bullets.

Houda Saadi, a 35-year-old waitress of Tunisian descent, was celebrating her birthday with her sister Halima and 10 other friends at La Belle Equipe in the 11th arrondissement when two terrorists sprayed the terrace with gunfire. Houda and Halima, who leaves behind a husband and two children aged seven and two, were among the 19 people killed in Friday night’s attack.

Very sad for the family to lose two sisters.

They came from varied backgrounds but the Muslim victims of the indiscriminate multiple attacks were all in the prime of their lives. They included a violinist, an architect, a receptionist and a shop assistant. As the children of France’s colonial legacy, or citizens of those countries, their deaths have cast a shroud of mourning beyond French shores to north Africa.

Terrorism can be indiscriminate.

Djamila Houd, 41, had been a receptionist at the headquarters of the Isabel Marant ready-to-wear fashion house near the Palais Royal for the past three years. She too lost her life on the terrace of La Belle Equipe. A colleague said she was “very jolly and friendly” and an essential member of the closely knit team. A friend who is now on compassionate leave has posted poignant pictures of the two of them enjoying fun times on a boat trip earlier this year.

A useful reminder that the vast majority of Muslims in France and Europe do integrate well. The challenge is the significant minority who do not.

The dead among France’s Muslim community included Asta Diakité, the cousin of the French footballer Lassana Diarra who was playing in the friendly against Germany on Friday night when two suicide bombers disrupted the match. Expressing his pain in a Facebook posting, the footballer said that Diakite, who worked in a chemist’s in the 18th arrondissement, was “my rock, my supporter, my elder sister”.