President Francois Hollande meets with France Religious Leaders.read more.

President Francois Hollande displayed interfaith
solidarity with France’s religious leaders on
Wednesday after two Islamist militants killed a
Roman Catholic priest in a church, igniting fierce
political criticism of the government’s security
record.
One of the assailants was a known would-be
jihadist awaiting trial under supposedly tight
surveillance, a revelation that raised pressure
over the Socialist government’s response to a
wave of attacks claimed by Islamic State since
early in 2015.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged into
the politics of Daech (Islamic State), which
wants to set the children of the same family
against each other,” the Archbishop of Paris,
Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, told journalists after
the meeting at the Elysee presidential palace.
He was flanked by representatives of other
Christian denominations as well as Jewish,
Muslim and Buddhist leaders.
Hollande and his ministers were already under
fire from conservative opponents over the
policing of Bastille Day celebrations in the
Riviera city of Nice in which 84 people died when
a delivery man drove a heavy truck at revelers.
Former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is
expected to enter a conservative primary for next
year’s presidential election, stepped up his attack
on Hollande’s record since the first major attack
against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last
year.
“All this violence and barbarism has paralyzed
the French left since January 2015,” Sarkozy told
Le Monde newspaper. “It has lost its bearings
and is clinging to a mindset that is out of touch
with reality.”
Sarkozy has called for the detention or electronic
tagging of all suspected Islamist militants, even
if they have committed no offense. France’s
internal security service has confidential “S files”
on some 10,500 suspected jihadists.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve rejected
Sarkozy’s proposal, saying that to jail them
would be unconstitutional and in any case could
be counterproductive.
“What has enabled France to break up a large
number of terrorist networks is keeping these
people under ‘S file’ surveillance, which allows
intelligence services to work without these
individuals being aware,” he said on Europe 1
radio.
The chairman of France’s conference of religious
faiths, Protestant community leader Francois
Clavairoly, said after the talks with Hollande that
it was impossible to protect every place of
worship in the country.
“Everyone has to take responsibility, use best
practice and keep an eye open,” he said.
DEATH AT THE ALTAR
Tuesday’s attackers interrupted a church service,
forced the 85-year-old priest to his knees at the
altar and slit his throat. As they came out of the
church hiding behind three hostages and
shouting “Allahu akbar” (”God is Greatest”), they
were shot and killed by police.
The knifemen arrived during morning mass in
Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class town
near Rouen, northwest of Paris, where Father
Jacques Hamel had been celebrating mass. One
of the hostages was badly wounded during the
attack.
Islamic State said on its news agency that its
“soldiers” carried out the attack. It has
prioritised targeting France, which has been
bombing the group’s bases in Iraq and Syria as
part of a U.S.-led international coalition.
Police said they arrested a 16-year-old local
youth after the incident but Cazeneuve said on
Wednesday he did not appear to be linked to the
church attack.
One of the attackers, 19-year-old Adel Kermiche,
was a local man who was known to intelligence
services after his failed bids to reach Syria to
wage jihad.
Kermiche first tried to travel to Syria in March
2015 but was arrested in Germany. Upon his
return to France he was placed under
surveillance and barred from leaving his local
area.
Less than two months later, Kermiche slipped
away and was intercepted in Turkey making his
way toward Syria again.
He was sent back to France and detained until
late March this year when he was released on
bail pending trial for alleged membership of a
terrorist organization. He had to wear an
electronic tag, surrender his passport and was
only allowed to leave his parents’ home for a few
hours a day.
Kermiche’s tag did not send an alarm because
the attack took place during the four hour period
when he was allowed out.
According to the justice ministry, there are just
13 terrorism suspects and people convicted of
terrorist links wearing such tags. Seven are on
pre-trial bail. The other six have been convicted
but wear the electronic bracelet instead of
serving a full jail term.
France was already in a state of shock less than
two weeks after the Nice truck attack. In
November, 130 people died in shooting and
suicide bombings in and around Paris.
In March, three Islamist militants linked to the
Paris attackers killed 32 people in suicide attacks
on Brussels airport and a metro station in the
Belgian capital.
Since the Bastille Day killings in Nice, there has
been a spate of attacks.