Italy said goodbye to
Valeria Solesin with an emotional funeral in Venice's St Mark's
Square on Tuesday.
The Italian doctoral student was among the 130 victims of
this month's attacks by Islamist terrorists in Paris.
The coffin covered in white flowers containing Valeria's
body was taken to the funeral aboard a gondola.
The Italian and French national anthems were played after
it arrived.
President Sergio Mattarella attended the funeral, a civil
ceremony which the 28-year-old's parents invited people of all
faiths to attend, including Muslims.
"It's as if Valeria were our daughter," said Mohamed Amin
Al Ahdab, the president of Venice's Muslim community.
"We are here today to say that she was not killed in the
name of our God, nor in the name of our religion, nor in our
name".
Valeria's father Alberto praised his daughter, a onetime
volunteer for the Italian war-zone medical charity Emergency, as
a example of young people who never give up and thanked the
representatives of the different faiths who attended her funeral
for taking a stand against fundamentalism.
"Some have said that our family has represented an example
of composure and dignity over the last few days, as if we could
be an example for others," Alberto Solesin said.
"If this is even remotely true, I say that this was a duty
we owed to all the Valerias and Andreas of the world who work,
study and suffer and never give up," he said, referring also to
Valeria's boyfriend, in whose arms the 28-year-old died.
"I thank the representatives of the religions, Christians,
Jewish and Muslim, for their presence in this square as a symbol
of the path of humans in a time when fanaticism would like to
stage massacres with appeals for the values of religion."
The Sorbonne sociology doctoral student was at a concert
at the popular Bataclan theatre when gunmen wielding AK-47s
opened fire on the crowd of some 1,500 people, killing 89 in an
attack that lasted 20 minutes.
French President Francoise Hollande expressed his
sympathies in a message read out at the funeral.
"I share the pain of the family, of the relatives and of
all of Italy," the message read.
"Valeria came to us in France for the love of life and of
culture and she found death under the fire of terrorists".
Premier Matteo Renzi was among the thousands to pay
tribute to Valeria as her body lay in state on Monday.
Venice Imam Hamad Al Mohamad called for Allah to help the
Valeria's family and the whole of Europe at the funeral.
"We ask Allah to keep Valeria and all of the victims in
His glory and to help her family and protect Europe, Italy and
this city from evil and bring peace to our souls," he said.
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