NICE – A regional Islamic association in Nice revealed on Tuesday that one third of civilians killed in the truck terror attack were Muslims, stressing that terrorism knows no religion and threatens people of all faiths.

“This is complicated in terms of mourning for the whole world; this is also a little complicated for the Muslim community which is afraid that acts of violence,” will be directed at them, Kawthar Ben Salem, a spokeswoman for the Union of Muslims of the Alpes-Maritimes, told New York Times on Wednesday, July 20.

“We hope that this sends a global message that the barbarity touches the whole world and that the people here, the victims, are not those who commit the crimes in Syria and Iraq.”

The attack occurred late on Thursday when a lorry ploughed through a crowd of people watching fireworks to celebrate French national holiday Bastille Day in the city on the French Riviera.

No clear motive has yet emerged why the driver Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who was known to the police for petty crimes, carried out the attack, but the incident is being treated as a terrorist incident.

The attack was immediately condemned by the French Muslim Council and Muslim scholars who rejected the atrocity as a “barbarian attack”.

The council called for French Muslims to pray on Friday for “the memory of the victims of this barbarian attack”.

Muslims in America, Canada, Gulf, and Egypt also condemned the vicious attack.

About 120,000 people in the Alpes-Maritimes are from the Maghreb — including Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The majority of them are Muslims.

At least 10 children and teenagers were killed in the attack, but because Bouhlel was identified as a Muslim, Ben Salem said, many people “don’t see that some Muslim children were killed with the other children.”

The huge Muslim turnout to the event was attributed to the nature of the Bastille Day festival, which includes less drinking.

It is also less religious than Nice’s other major festivals: a Christmas market, the Carnival festival at Mardi Gras and the fireworks for Aug. 15, which marks the Catholic feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary to heaven.

“There are so many people at the fireworks, of every race, every color, every religion,” said Oucine Jamouli, 62, the head of a Moroccan association.

“Terror basically aims at the whole society and at its freedom,” added Jamouli, who runs a Moroccan restaurant a block from the Promenade des Anglais, where the attack occurred.