More than 100 Muslims attend Catholic Church mass to worship with Christians in France

France: More than 100 Muslims including a top Imam attended a Catholic Church mass to worship with Christians in France on Sunday to show solidarity and sorrow with the church after a priest was brutally murdered by Islamist jihadist inside a Rouen church last week.

According to reports, more than 100 Muslims were among the 2,000 christian faithful who gathered at the 11th-century Gothic cathedral of Rouen near the Normandy town, France 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.”

The Muslim delegation was led by Nice’s top imam Otaman Aissaoui in the southern city.

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

Also at the Notre Dame church in southwestern Bordeaux, Muslim delegation, led by the city’s top imam Tareq Oubrou attended the mass.

“It’s an occasion to show (Muslims) that we do not confuse Islam with Islamism, Muslim with jihadist,” said Reverend Jean Rouet.

Muslims around France were responding to a call by the French Muslim council CFCM to show their “solidarity and compassion” over the priest’s murder on Tuesday last week.

One woman who gave her name as Sadia who attended the mass service at a church in central Paris said;

“I’m a practising Muslim and I came to share my sorrow and tell you that we are brothers and sisters.” adding that “What happened is beyond comprehension.”

During the mass service in Rouen, faithfuls from both religion turn to greet each other in the pews with shaking of hands or a kiss as a sign of peace, a regular part of the liturgy.

Archbishop Lebrun used the opportunity 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 priest Hamel was murdered.