Muslims pray with Catholics over priest's murder by 'Isis' terrorists

Muslims across France attended Catholic Mass on Sunday in a gesture of interfaith solidarity following the killing of an elderly priest in a church in France by two jihadist attackers.

More than 100 Muslims were among 2,000 church-goers who attended a service at the Gothic cathedral in Rouen, only a few miles from where 86-year-old Father Jacques Hamel was killed.

Adel Kermiche, 19, along with Abdel Malik Petitjean, also 19, took six people hostage at a church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen in Normandy, before slitting Father Hamel’s throat, during a morning mass at around 10am local time on Tuesday.

Both Kermiche and Petitjean were later shot dead by police.

Following the attack, Isis claimed responsibility calling the pair of attackers “soldiers of the Islamic State”. Isis’ Amaq propaganda agency later released video footage of the French attackers pledging allegiance to the terror group.

French television broadcast scenes of interfaith unity across France on Sunday, with Muslim men and women crowding Catholic cathedrals in Lille, Calais and the Basilica of St Denis.

Nice’s top Imam, Otaman Aissaoui, led a delegation to a Catholic mass in the city where a Tunisian man killed 84 people and injured 300 more when he ploughed a lorry into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on 14 July, the Local reports.

“Being united is a response to the act of horror and barbarism,” Aissaoui said.

The Muslim people were responding to a call from the French Muslim Council (CFCM), urging them show “solidarity and compassion” in the wake of Father Hamel's murder.

At Paris’ famous Notre Dame, Dalil Boubakeur, the leader of the Mosque of Paris, told the congregation that Muslims wanted to live in peace, before reciting "Urbi et Orbi" - a Latin blessing identified with the pope and meaning "to the city and the world."

The sign of peace, a traditional part of the liturgy where the congregation greet each other, became a particularly poignant moment during the Mass in Rouen, as Muslims and Catholics shook hands and kissed each other on the cheek between the pews.

The Archbishop used the moment to greet Muslim leaders attending, as well as three nuns who were at the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray when Father Hamel was killed.

Jacqueline Prevot, who attended the service, said: "Look at this whole Muslim community that attended Mass. I find this very heartwarming."

Similar scenes took place in Italy where the head of Italy's Union of Islamic communities, Izzedin Elzir, called on his colleagues to "take this historic moment to transform tragedy into a moment of dialogue."

Ahmed El Balazi, the Imam of the Vobarno mosque in Italy's Lombard province of Brescia, said: "These people are tainting our religion and it is terrible to know that many people consider all Muslim terrorists. That is not the case.

"Religion is one thing. Another is the behaviour of Muslims who don't represent us."

France and Italy are both increasing their supervision of mosques following the attacks in Normandy and Nice, both of which were claimed by the so-called Islamic State group.

Earlier on Sunday, two men were placed under formal investigation in connection with Father Hamel's murder, including a cousin of one of the attackers.

Farid K, 30, a cousin of Petitjean, has been arrested on suspicion of terrorist association, the BBC reports.

A 20-year-old man, named as Jean-Philippe Steven J, is under formal investigation for attempting to travel with Petitjean to Syria in June.

Additional reporting by Reuters