Islamic terrorists burst into a church in Normandy and force elderly priest to get on his knees at altar then sliced his throat. They then filmed themselves shouting praise to Allah and did a sermon around the Christian altar in Arabic.
It was Islamist extremists first attack against a church in the West, and fulfills longstanding threats against “crusaders” in what the militants paint as a centuries-old battle for power.
“To attack a church, to kill a priest, is to profane the republic,” French President Francois Hollande told the nation.
Haras Rafiq, managing director of the Quilliam Foundation, described the attack as a turning point. “What these two people today have done is … shifted the tactical attack to the attack on Rome … an attack on Christianity,” he said.