French Imam hits out at extremists after church attack

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Muslims and Christians have prayed together at a mosque in the French town where an elderly priest was killed this week&comma; with one imam calling the extremists non-Muslims who are &&num;8220&semi;not part of civilisation&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;humanity&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Muslims came from other parts of France to be present for the service shared with Christians in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The killing of 85-year-old Reverend Jacques Hamel as he celebrated morning Mass on Tuesday sent shockwaves around France&comma; and deeply touched many among the nation&&num;8217&semi;s five million Muslims&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack&comma; as well as the attack in Nice&comma; where 84 people were killed by a man who drove his lorry down a seaside promenade on Bastille Day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The head of the main Muslim umbrella group&comma; Anouar Kbibech&comma; who attended Friday&&num;8217&semi;s gathering&comma; reiterated a call for Muslims to visit churches on Sunday to show solidarity with Christians as they pray&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; one imam made a rare direct strike at the killers who claimed to act in the name of Allah&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;You have the wrong civilisation because you are not a part of civilisation&period; You have the wrong humanity because you are not a part of humanity&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Abdelatif Hmitou&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;You have the wrong idea about us &lpar;Muslims&rpar; and we won&&num;8217&semi;t forgive you for this&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;How&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he asked&comma; addressing the extremists&comma; &&num;8220&semi;may the idea reach your mind that we might loathe those who helped us&&num;8230&semi; to pray to Allah in this town&quest; How could you think that&comma; Mister killer&quest; Mister criminal&quest;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He was referring to the help by the St Therese church adjacent to the mosque that sold the plot to the Muslims for a symbolic sum so they could build a house of worship&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The St Etienne church where the attack occurred has been sealed shut&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The two 19-year-old attackers were killed by police as they left the church&comma; where they had held two nuns and an elderly couple hostage as they slit the priest&&num;8217&semi;s throat&period; A third nun escaped and gave the alert&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Three people were being held on Friday for questioning in the attack&comma; including a Syrian refugee&comma; a judicial official said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Syrian was detained on Thursday in the Allier region of central France because a photocopy of his passport was found at the home of one of the attackers&comma; Adel Kermiche&comma; according to the official&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Also being held was a cousin of Kermiche&&num;8217&semi;s accomplice&comma; Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean&comma; on suspicion he was aware of the attack plan based on information gathered from social networks&comma; the judicial official said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A 16-year-old arrested just after the attack remained in custody&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Two members of Petitjean&&num;8217&semi;s family&comma; a sister and her companion&comma; were released after questioning&comma; the official said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>How Kermiche&comma; from Normandy&comma; concocted the attack plot with Petitjean&comma; from Aix-les-Bain in the Alpes of eastern France&comma; remained unclear&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What is known is that he arrived in Kermiche&&num;8217&semi;s town just three days earlier&comma; apparently staying at his home&comma; according to the judicial official&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kermiche wore a tracking bracelet after arrests with false IDs trying to go to Syria but had four hours a day of freedom&period; Petitjean had no record&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Petitjean&&num;8217&semi;s identity was made public only on Thursday based on DNA tests&period; It became clear that anti-terrorist officials came close twice to identifying him as a threat&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In one instance&comma; four days before the attack&comma; an alert with a photo of him went out to police with a note he may be planning an attack &&num;8211&semi; but the photo had no name to match the face&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He was spotted in Turkey in June but French authorities were alerted too late and he quickly returned to France&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Outside the mosque a sign read&colon; &&num;8220&semi;Mosque in mourning&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Reverend Pierre Belhache&comma; in charge of relations with the Muslim community&comma; affirmed to the Muslim and Christian faithful that &&num;8220&semi;we won&&num;8217&semi;t let anyone divide us&period; It is so rich to have these differences but still be together&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed35b79f2d6">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; 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