Local muslim community refuses to bury priest's murderer
Muslim community leaders in the Normandy town where an elderly Catholic priest was murdered by Islamic militants have refused to bury one of the two young men who killed him.
Adel Kermiche, who was 19, killed Father Jacques Hamel, 86, while he delivered mass.
The local Muslim cultural association in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray has told the media that they do not wish to "taint" Islam by associating with Kermiche, who was shot dead by French police after he took hostages at the town's 17th-century stone church, alongside Abdel-Malik Petitjean, also 19, on 26 July.
Mohammed Karabila, the president of the Muslim association, who is also an imam at one of the northern French town's mosques, told Le Parisien: "We're not going to taint Islam with this person. We won't participate in preparing the body or the burial."
The paper reported that Muslims who lived in the town, which lies near the city of Rouen, supported the decision. One local Muslim resident who agreed with the mosque's refusal to bury Kermiche, said: "What this young man did was sinful, he is no longer part of our community."
It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the Islamic extremists do not speak and act for all, or even most, members of the Muslim community and those Muslims who say that Jihadist murderers are heretics whose actions are out of line with the teachings of their faith can point to plenty of statements by the Prophet Mohammed and to passages in the Qu'ran which support that position.
More details of the decision by the Muslim community in St Etienne du Rouvray here.
Adel Kermiche, who was 19, killed Father Jacques Hamel, 86, while he delivered mass.
The local Muslim cultural association in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray has told the media that they do not wish to "taint" Islam by associating with Kermiche, who was shot dead by French police after he took hostages at the town's 17th-century stone church, alongside Abdel-Malik Petitjean, also 19, on 26 July.
Mohammed Karabila, the president of the Muslim association, who is also an imam at one of the northern French town's mosques, told Le Parisien: "We're not going to taint Islam with this person. We won't participate in preparing the body or the burial."
The paper reported that Muslims who lived in the town, which lies near the city of Rouen, supported the decision. One local Muslim resident who agreed with the mosque's refusal to bury Kermiche, said: "What this young man did was sinful, he is no longer part of our community."
It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the Islamic extremists do not speak and act for all, or even most, members of the Muslim community and those Muslims who say that Jihadist murderers are heretics whose actions are out of line with the teachings of their faith can point to plenty of statements by the Prophet Mohammed and to passages in the Qu'ran which support that position.
More details of the decision by the Muslim community in St Etienne du Rouvray here.
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