On 26 July 2016, two
Islamist terrorists attacked participants in a
Mass
Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...
at a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
church in
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
History
Evidence of ancient habitation has been found on and around the site of modern-day Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray including ...
,
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, northern France. Wielding knives and wearing fake
explosive belt
An explosive belt (also called suicide belt or a suicide vest) is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with ball bearings, ...
s, the men took six people captive and later killed one of them, 85-year-old
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...
Jacques Hamel
Jacques Hamel (30 November 1930 – 26 July 2016) was a French Catholic priest who served in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. On 26 July 2016, Hamel was murdered during the 2016 Normandy church attack by two Muslim men pledging allegiance to the Isla ...
, by slitting his throat, and also critically wounded an 86-year-old man.
The
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
s were shot dead by
BRI police as they tried to leave the church.
The attackers, 19-year-olds Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean, had pledged allegiance to
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
[Attentats en France : ce que l'on sait de Rachid Kassim, membre présumé de l'EI](_blank)
sur '' france24.com'' le 12 septembre 2016.
Attack
At about 9:45 am on 26 July 2016, two men wielding knives and a
handgun
A handgun is a short- barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also braced ...
entered the 16th-century
church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray as Mass was being held. Hamel, three nuns,
and two
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
ioners were taken hostage
and ordered to sit together in a group.
One attacker wore a fake
explosive belt
An explosive belt (also called suicide belt or a suicide vest) is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with ball bearings, ...
and the other wore a backpack made to look like it carried a bomb.
The handgun was later described as an "old, non-functioning pistol".
A hostage said the attackers filmed themselves and "did a sort of
sermon
A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. El ...
" at the altar in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
. On the recording, which was later found by police, the attackers also shouted "you Christians are eliminating us".
The attackers forced Hamel to kneel at the foot of the altar
[ and then slit his throat while screaming "]Allahu akbar
Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
". Hamel had tried to resist, pushing his attackers away with his feet while saying "go away, Satan
Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...
". Another hostage, an 86-year-old parishioner, was ordered to photograph or film the priest after he had been killed. The attackers then knifed him, leaving him critically wounded. The other hostages were largely unhurt. After the killing, the two men talked with the nuns about the Koran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing.: ...
. One also warned "as long as there are bombs on Syria, we will continue our attacks".
During the killing, one nun hostage ran outside without the perpetrators noticing. She stopped a passing motorist, who alerted the police.["Les terroristes ont mis le prêtre à genoux" : la sœur qui a lancé l'alerte évoque une scène d'"horreur"]
Closer. 26 July 2016 After police arrived at the church, they tried to negotiate with the two men through a small window opening on to the sacristy
A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.
The sacristy is usually located ...
. Armed police then tried to enter the church and end the siege, but the attackers had lined the hostages up in front of the door, as human shields. At about 10:45 am, the hostages fled the church, followed by the two attackers. One wielding a handgun, they charged at police shouting "Allahu akbar"[ and were shot dead by officers from ]Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
's Research and Intervention Brigade
A Research and Intervention Brigade (french: Brigade de recherche et d'intervention (BRI) (), Investigation and Intervention Brigade or Anti-Gang Brigade) is a unit of the French National Police. The first units were formed in 1964 and carried ...
.
Within hours of the attack, the ISIL-linked Amaq News Agency
Amaq News Agency ( ar, وكالة أعماق الإخبارية) is a news outlet linked to the Islamic State (IS). Amaq publishes news reports about claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks in Western countries. It is often the "first poi ...
said that the attack was carried out by two "soldiers" from the group, in response to ISIL's general call to attack countries of the coalition fighting it. On 27 July, Amaq published a video of the two perpetrators pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ( ar, أبو بكر البغدادي, ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai ( ar, إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, ʾIb ...
.
Jacques Hamel
Jacques Hamel (born 1930 in Darnétal
Darnétal (; Norman: ''Dernétal'') is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Geography
A light industrial suburban town surrounded by woodland, situated some east of the centre of Rouen at the ju ...
) was named a vicar
A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...
at the St.-Antoine church in Le Petit-Quevilly
Le Petit-Quevilly (, locally ) is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department, region of Normandy, France.
Geography
A residential and light industrial suburb situated inside a meander of the river Seine
on the opposite bank to Rouen city centre, ...
in 1958, a vicar at the Notre-Dame de Lourdes church in Sotteville-lès-Rouen
Sotteville-lès-Rouen (, literally ''Sotteville near Rouen'') is a commune and railway town in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
Geography
It is the largest suburb of the city of Rouen and adjacent to it, ...
in 1967, a parish priest at Saint-Pierre-lès-Elbeuf in 1975 and a parish priest in Cléon
Cléon () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
This city is known for its Renault factory, which manufactures engines and gearboxes.
Two Renault engines are named after the city, the Cléon-Fo ...
in 1988. He joined the church at Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray () is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region in northern France.
History
Evidence of ancient habitation has been found on and around the site of modern-day Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray including ...
in 2000 and assumed his role as the parish's auxiliary priest in 2005. With Mohammed Karabila, the president of Normandy's Regional Council of the Muslim Faith, he worked on an interfaith committee.
Perpetrators
One of the attackers was identified as Algerian-born 19-year-old Adel Kermiche. Kermiche, who lived in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, had twice in 2015 attempted to travel to Syria. He was once returned by Germany, and once turned back by the authorities at the Turkish border. As a result, he spent time in a French jail before being released in March 2016. Kermiche was released after writing to the judge "I am a Muslim based on the values of mercy, kindness (...) I am not an extremist," and insisting that he recited his prayers twice a day and "wanted to see his friends and marry". The prosecutor opposed his release. Upon his release, he was electronically tagged and a curfew was placed on him, requiring him to live at his parents' home, which was near the church, and to leave his house only between 08:30 to 12:30 and 14:00 to 18:00. Manuel Valls
Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...
, Prime Minister of France
The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers.
The prime minister ...
, said the release of Kermiche was a "failure" of the French justice. Kermiche's writings were found after his death, in which he spoke of meeting his "spiritual guide" in a French prison, he called this guide his "sheikh," who "gave him ideas". Kermiche's fiancée was Sarah Hervouet, a "convert to Islam," and one of the Paris bomb plot conspirators.
On 28 July, the second attacker was named by investigators as 19-year-old Abdel Malik Petitjean. He was the France-born son of Algerian immigrants. He had been "on the radar of the police since June 29", after he also tried to enter Syria from Turkey. French intelligence had received his picture four days before the attack, but they were not given a name or description at that time the prosecutor's office said. He was born in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges (; german: Sankt Didel), commonly referred to as just Saint-Dié, is a commune in the Vosges department in Grand Est in northeastern France.
It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Geography
Saint-Dié is located in the ...
, in Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gr ...
and grew up in Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie. , southeast France. He was a student of commerce and finance who converted to Islam
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
a few years before the attack. His mother told reporters that he had been visiting a cousin in northeast France before the attack and that she did not know how he had ended up in St.-Étienne-du-Rouvray.
Following the attack, the Amaq News Agency
Amaq News Agency ( ar, وكالة أعماق الإخبارية) is a news outlet linked to the Islamic State (IS). Amaq publishes news reports about claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks in Western countries. It is often the "first poi ...
released a video showing Petitjean and Kermiche swearing their allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Investigation
Police raided a house in the suburb after the attack and arrested one person. The incident is being investigated by anti-terrorism judges.
Police were said to be trying to identify members of a closed channel on the messaging app Telegram
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
, on which Kermiche had posted, as part of an effort to establish how the perpretators had met. According to French daily ''Le Parisien
''Le Parisien'' (; French for "The Parisian") is a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, and local news of Paris and its suburbs. It is owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, better known as LVMH.
Histor ...
'', citing sources close to the investigation, Kermiche and Petitjean met on Telegram 4 days only before the attack. Petitjean then travelled to Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, 700 km from his hometown Aix-les-Bains
Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie. , the following day. A 29-year-old French ISIS fighter from Roanne
Roanne (; frp, Rouana; oc, Roana) is a commune in the Loire department, central France.
It is located northwest of Lyon on the river Loire. It has an important Museum, the ''Musée des Beaux-arts et d'Archéologie Joseph-Déchelette'' (Fren ...
was suspected of having influenced, if not controlled, the two perpetrators from his base in Iraq or Syria, also via Telegram.
Two men, suspected of having been aware of Kermiche and Petitjean's plans, were charged with conspiracy and taken into custody in the weeks following the attack. One was a 30-year-old cousin of Petitjean, and the other a 21-year-old who had travelled from Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
to meet the perpetrators in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray two days before the attack.
Background
Mass is scheduled for each weekday at 09:00 at the church; Hamel celebrated that day acting as a substitute for the parish priest.
Andrea Tornielli, writing for the Vatican Insider, says "this is the first time a priest has died inside a European church". The same journal cites other deaths of Catholic priests in the West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
at the hands of common thieves or anti-religious people, as well as attacks by Islamists in Africa and Asia.
Sid Ahmed Ghlam, who allegedly planned to attack a Villejuif
Villejuif () is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.
Name
The earliest reference to Villejuif appears in a bill signed by the Pope Callixtus II on 27 November 1119. It refers to Villa Ju ...
church in April 2015, was reported to have had a list of churches which included Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray church.
Reactions
French Prime Minister
The prime minister of France (french: link=no, Premier ministre français), officially the prime minister of the French Republic, is the head of government of the French Republic and the leader of the Council of Ministers.
The prime minister i ...
, Manuel Valls
Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...
, said on Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, "the whole of France and all Catholics have been hurt. We will stand together".
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi
Federico Lombardi, S.J. (born 29 August 1942) is an Italian Catholic priest and the former director of the Holy See Press Office. He succeeded Joaquín Navarro-Valls and was succeeded by Greg Burke.
Lombardi also serves as the postulator for t ...
said that Pope Francis
Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...
was being kept up to date with developments and that he felt pain and horror at the "absurd violence".
The Archbishop of Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
, Dominique Lebrun, who was attending the World Youth Day
World Youth Day (WYD) is an event for young people organized by the Catholic Church that was initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1985, sometimes nicknamed in later years as the "Catholic Woodstock". Its concept has been influenced by the Light-Li ...
in Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, Poland, said in response to the attack: "I cry out to God with all men of goodwill. I would invite non-believers to join in the cry. The Catholic Church cannot take weapons other than those of prayer and brotherhood among men". Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz
Stanisław Jan Dziwisz (; born 27 April 1939) is a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków from 2005 until 2016. He was created a cardinal in 2006. He was a long-time and influential aide to Pope ...
, archbishop of Kraków asked the participants of the WYD to pray for all the victims of the recent terrorist attacks, especially for Jacques Hamel ″who was murdered today while celebrating the Eucharist
The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...
in France.″
Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston
The Archdiocese of Boston ( la, Archidiœcesis Bostoniensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the New England region of the United States. Its territorial remit encompasses the whole of ...
, who was also attending the World Youth Day, was asked whether Hamel could be declared a martyr
A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...
and confirmed that "it was a question of hatred of faith". The interview explained that "the Church requires that the individual was killed for such a reason" in order to become a martyr. Speaking of the response by Catholics to Muslims, Cardinal O'Malley added "To demonise Islam that's always the great danger … we have to be very clear we are not painting everyone with the same brush.
The BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
reported that the attack sparked a wave of "prayer, solidarity and Christian imagery" on social media. and according to BBC security correspondent
, "the selection of a church by the attackers … … crosses a new red line in the grim history of recent attacks on continental Europe".
Mohammad Karabila, President of Normandy's Regional Council of the Muslim Faith and imam of a local mosque said of Kermiche, "We're not going to taint Islam with this person" and "We won't participate in preparing the body or the burial". The mayor's office will decide whether the body is buried in the town. On 30 July, Muslims attended Mass in churches across France and in Italy, as a sign of respect for the murdered priest.
On 31 July, several copies of the Quran at the multi-faith room of
when slices of pork were laid inside the books. The perpetrators also left a photo of Jacques Hamel with the caption "Victim of Islam".
'' reported that the 2016 Normandy Church attack was part of a group of at least other four knife attacks in France in a span of 13-months, including the
stabbing.