Muslims and Christians in French Town Pray Old Bonds Survive Priest’s Murder

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/02/world/europe/france-muslim-christian-priest-murder-isis.html

Version 0 of 1.

ST.-ÉTIENNE-DU-ROUVRAY, France — It was the first time since a childhood school trip that Anissa Latroche had set foot in a church.

Ms. Latroche, a sociology student who is Muslim, came to Mass in the Rouen Cathedral on Sunday to pay tribute to the Rev. Jacques Hamel, the priest who was killed last week by two young men acting in the name of the Islamic State.

“They welcomed us very nicely, me and my friend,” said Ms. Latroche, who was wearing a pale blue veil as she entered the church with a mixture of respect and shyness.

She said she was shocked about what had happened to the priest, and even more so by the age of one of the killers, Adel Kermiche: 19, just like her.

“I have not even started my life yet, and he basically ruined his and so many others’,” Ms. Latroche said. “I don’t get it.”

In the wake of Father Hamel’s murder, Muslim and Christian communities around France came together over the weekend to show solidarity by attending each other’s religious services, in churches and mosques alike.

But the services in Rouen, and in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray, a nearby suburb where Father Hamel was killed, took on a special resonance.

For people in this part of Normandy, the exchange served as a reminder that long before Father Hamel was killed, he and many others from both faiths had worked together to build bonds. In fact, the only mosque in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray was built on land adjacent to one of the town’s churches after the church sold it for a symbolic price of one euro.

The church where the priest was killed is in the city center. In the north of the city, members of the St.-Thérèse du Madrillet church and the next-door Yahya Mosque prayed together after the killing.

“This event should help us strengthen the links which already exist between us,” the Rev. Auguste Moanda-Phuati said on Friday in the mosque, where several Christian worshipers also attended. “As believers, we must show the example to build bridges between us and not walls, and this could be one of the solutions to fight what is happening right now.”

The imam, Abdellatif Hmito, emphasized the special links between the communities.

“You don’t know, you the murderer, the history of this town, who was Father Hamel, and the history of this mosque,” the imam said. “You mistook the community you attacked, you mistook the city and the target, and I would even say you mistook the country.”

St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray was a small countryside village until the 19th century, when several waves of immigration transformed it into a working-class community of nearly 29,000 today.

Belgians first built a cotton and textile factory. Portuguese and Spanish people came after World War I and brought a strong Catholic community. North African immigrants first arrived in the 1950s, and Kurdish refugees in more recent years.

“St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray has always been a melting pot of nationalities and immigrants,” said Pierre Ménard, a local historian. It was also one of the poorest cities in France, he noted, and has been a Communist Party stronghold for more than 50 years. The poverty helped forge ties between religious communities.

Still, many inhabitants fear the attack’s potential impact on the social connections that have frayed considerably in recent years.

In St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray, young Muslims are increasingly worried about the radicalization of people they know, the high unemployment rate and a future in which no one is safe.

“We all heard about how crazy Adel Kermiche was, and yet we just never took him seriously,” said Leïla Meterfi, 21, who is of Algerian descent. “We are so upset of how they so easily become brainwashed.”

Stéphane Meterfi, 44, emphasized that instead of being upset, young people needed to act, as he once did. Mr. Meterfi, born and raised in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray, lost one of his brothers at the age of 19 in a fight between rival neighborhood gangs.

“It was in the ’90s; I decided to create an association to help young people to get out of the quartier mentality and the violence,” Mr. Meterfi added, referring to something akin to a street mentality.

“Then, when I created my association, the priest of the parish of St.-Étienne was the only one who gave us a place for meetings,” he added. “Nobody trusted the young petty thugs of the town, except for him.”

“The sisters used to be nurses for our mothers, and they planned every cultural activity in the town,” Mr. Meterfi said, referring to local nuns.

Years later, Mr. Meterfi used to gather all of the neighborhood’s Muslim mothers and Abbé Pierre, a famous French priest who helped the homeless, for a giant couscous to celebrate interreligious dialogue in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray.

“I can’t believe that 20 years afterwards, a guy would kill the symbolic figure of the people who helped us at the time,” Mr. Meterfi said.

Near the red and beige Yahya Mosque, the church of St.-Thérèse du Madrillet with multicolored windows was welcoming believers on Friday for a prayer. Some were silently crying, others writing down messages in memory of Father Hamel.

Sister Marie Wandrille, 71, came to pay a tribute to the man she had worked with for 20 years.

“He was so attached to interreligious dialogue,” she said. “He and I used to give tutoring classes for children after schools. Muslims and Catholic children used to come to our parish every day.”

Near the church, Muslim women and Christian women set up an association to collect clothes for poor people.

“The link between the two communities is very strong here,” Sister Wandrille said. “At the end of Ramadan, we still celebrate together,” she added, referring to the Muslim holy month. “I am sure that this attack will bring us closer, not the reverse.”

In front of the mosque, a group of young men from a Salafist group distributed leaflets condemning the attack, but they refused to speak to reporters.

For Mr. Meterfi, it was an example of the two faces of the new generation in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray.

“They might be doing this peaceful distribution, and at the same time, they would hide their real intentions,” he said. “The truth is, we don’t really know or control our youth anymore.”

According to the local Seine-Maritime department, 140 people in the region were considered “radicalized” last year.

At St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray’s City Hall, which faces the house of Father Hamel, people have left several messages calling for peace between members of different faiths.

Hubert Wulfranc, the mayor, said he still believed that the town would “stand up” in the wake of the murder. “It must stand up” he added.

But he recognized that recent violence might exacerbate tensions. He said he would be vigilant about reports of verbal aggression against Muslims, as well as other cases of “radicalization.”

“There were 2,000 people gathered in the local stadium on Thursday to pay a tribute to Father Hamel,” Mayor Wulfranc noted. “We must ask ourselves where the other inhabitants were and why they did not come.”