Normandy church attack: France fears religious war after symbolic killing of Catholic priest

France's political leaders have expressed fears of a religious war, after the murder of a Catholic priest marked a grim new direction for jihadi terrorism in the country.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the intention of the highly symbolic murder was to “provoke a war of religion in France”.

On Wednesday morning, President Francois Hollande met religious leaders in a bid to calm tensions and prevent further violence.

The murder of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, has shocked France, where the majority of people identify as Catholic. The priest and four worshippers at the Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, Normandy, were held hostage by Adel Kermiche, 19, and another man, who has not yet been identified. They were later shot dead by police.

While France has suffered numerous terrorist attacks in the last 18 months, some observers said the latest atrocity is the first attempt to deliberately target the core, rural section of French society. The priest was killed in a church close to Rouen, where Joan of Arc was martyred in 1431.

In comments reported by the Irish Times, Mr Valls said: “By attacking a priest, in a Catholic church, the objective was to pit French people against each other, to attack one religion to provoke a war of religions.”

In some quarters, there were elements which appeared encourage this. Marion Le Pen, Catholic niece of the right wing Front National party leader, Marine Le Pen, tweeted on Tuesday: “In the West as in the East, Christians must stand up to resist Islam!”

She added: “Faced with the threat that weighs on the France, I decided to join the military reserve. I invite all the young patriots to do the same.”

A blog post written by Front National in reaction to the attack said: “It is now the heart of the cultural identity of our nation that is intentionally touched.” This sentiment is likely to be shared among French society more broadly.

But others have called for restraint. In a statement, the Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, said: “The Catholic Church can take up no other weapons than prayer and fraternity between men.”

Mohammed Karabila, president of the Regional Council of the Muslim Faith for Haute-Normandie, frequently met with Father Hamel as part of an interfaith council and considered him a friend.

“I don’t understand, all of our prayers go out to his family and the Catholic community,” Mr Karabila said. “He was someone who gave his life to others. We are stunned here at the mosque.”

Of his conversations with Father Hamel, Mr Karabila said: "We talked about religion and how to live together.

"It has been 18 months that civilians have been attacked, now they are attacking religious symbols, using our religion as a pretext. It is no longer possible."

Previous jihadi attacks in France targeting other religions have focused on murdering Jewish people. In January 2015, a kosher supermarket was attacked by gunman Amedy Coulibaly. The consequent siege resulted in the death of four hostages and hurt nine more.

There have been numerous other smaller scale attacks on the Jewish sites but their culmination was effective in instilling fear in the Franco-Jewish community.