Muslims step up cooperation with Catholic Church

French Muslims have stepped up their cooperation with the Catholic Church, a trend that has developed over the past year as community leaders have sought to ease tensions over radical Islamist attacks following last November’s Bataclan massacre in Paris and the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel in his church in July.

A delegation of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), accompanied by French clerics involved in dialogue with Muslims, joined in an interreligious meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on 3 November and had a 15-minute audience with him.

“The terrorists want to pit one community against another,” CFCM President Anouar Kbibech told Vatican Radio. “Our meeting with the Pope reflects the new dynamism of fraternity and consensus that we have fostered among Christians and Muslims.”

CFCM Secretary General Abdallah Zekri said: “We thanked him for denouncing several times the conflation of Islam and terrorism and for the clarity of his calls for fraternity, unity and love after the attacks.”

Delegation members said the Pope expressed appreciation for the CFCM’s call for Muslims to attend Mass at churches after Fr Hamel’s murder to express their solidarity with Catholics.

In an unusual step, the CFCM said it would distribute in its mosques the text of the Pope’s address to representatives of religions from around the world. “May it never happen again that the religions, because of the conduct of some of their followers, convey a distorted message, out of tune with that of mercy,” Pope Francis said then.