Muslims attended Catholic mass in
churches around France on Sunday in solidarity and sorrow following the
brutal jihadist murder of a priest, the latest in a string of attacks.
More than 100 Muslims were among the
2,000 faithful who packed the 11th-century Gothic cathedral of Rouen
near the Normandy town where two jihadi teenagers slit the throat of
85-year-old Father Jacques Hamel.
“I thank you in the name of all
Christians,” Rouen Archbishop Dominique Lebrun told them. “In this way
you are affirming that you reject death and violence in the name of
God.”
Nice’s top imam Otaman Aissaoui led a
delegation to a Catholic mass in the southern city where a jihadist
carried out a rampage in a truck on Bastille Day, claiming 84 lives and
injuring 435 including many Muslims.
“Being united is a response to the act of horror and barbarism,” he said.
The Notre Dame church in southwestern Bordeaux also welcomed a Muslim delegation, led by the city’s top imam Tareq Oubrou.
“It’s an occasion to show (Muslims) that we do not confuse Islam with Islamism, Muslim with jihadist,” said Reverend Jean Rouet.
The Muslims were responding to a call by
the French Muslim council CFCM to show their “solidarity and
compassion” over the priest’s murder on Tuesday.
Said a woman wearing a beige headscarf
who sat in a back pew at a church in central Paris: “I’m a practising
Muslim and I came to share my sorrow and tell you that we are brothers
and sisters.”
Giving her name only as Sadia, she added softly: “What happened is beyond comprehension.”
The most poignant moment of Sunday’s
mass in Rouen was the sign of peace, a regular part of the liturgy when
the faithful turn to greet each other in the pews, either shaking hands
or kissing.
Archbishop Lebrun used the moment to
step into the congregation and greet Muslim leaders attending, as well
as three nuns who were at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray when
Hamel was murdered.
Outside the Rouen cathedral a few
policemen and soldiers stood guard but did not conduct searches, seeking
to reassure a jittery population after the second jihadist attack in
less than a fortnight.
In addition to prompting fears of
fanning religious tensions in the officially secular country, Father
Hamel’s murder sparked renewed recriminations over perceived security
lapses.
Both of the 19-year-olds attackers ,
Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean, had been on intelligence
services’ radar and had tried to go to Syria.
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