Priest’s murder ‘an attack on all religions’

An attack on a Catholic church in northern France that saw an 84-year-old priest killed is an attack against all religions, the head of the European Jewish Congress said.

Two assailants who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State also critically wounded at least one other person during the Tuesday morning attack in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a suburb of Rouen about 100km northwest of Paris. They shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, before slitting the priest’s throat, according to reports.

The terrorists were shot and killed after taking the priest, two nuns and two parishioners hostage during morning Mass.

Following the siege, Islamic State claimed the two men as its “soldiers.”

“An attack against a religious institution and a man of God is an attack against all religions and faith itself,” Dr Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said in a statement following the attack. “This dastardly attack will only strengthen our resolve to defeat the enemy of Islamist terrorism.

“This attack targets all decent Europeans, Christians, Jews and Muslims alike,” he said.

Reacting to the attack, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on the free world to “fight to defend” our values.

“The whole world must stand up and fight to bring to an end the terrible winds of fundamentalism of those who believe that they have a right to harm or even kill those who do not have the same beliefs as them,” said Rivlin.

“It is our duty, each and every one of us, from every nation, every religion, every human being to oppose this.”

He made the comments in a meeting with Father Francesco Patton, a Christian leader who has just been appointed the top Catholic figure in Israel.

When he first heard of the attack in France, Rivlin said: “This attack shows the true face of the brutal nature and horror of terrorism. This is an attack by radical extremists, terrorists, who have struck at the very symbol of peace and murdered in cold blood in a house of God, while they pretend to speak in His name.”

He stressed, “The whole free world must understand that our values are under attack. We must fight to defend them, lest we be overtaken by waves of intolerance and hatred,” and added, “Israel stands side by side with the people of France, and we send our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their families.”

Patton responded by telling Rivlin that they “must work for peace – God asks that we work for peace.”

With JTA