Muslims attend Masses and vigils in show of solidarity

British, French and Italian Muslims attended Mass and vigils in several countries across Europe on Sunday to express their solidarity with Christians after the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel in France last week.

At Westminster Cathedral in London, rabbis, imams, and priests gathered for an interfaith prayer vigil.

In Italy, churches welcomed Muslims to Sunday Mass; three imams attended a service in Rome at the Church of St Maria in Trastevere.

French TV news broadcast scenes of interfaith solidarity from all around France, with Muslim women in headscarves and Jewish men in kippot crowding the front rows of Catholic cathedrals in Lille, Calais, and the Basilica of St Denis outside Paris.

More than 100 Muslims also joined 350 Catholics at a vigil in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray's second church on Saturday night.

Mohammed Karabila, President of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray Mosque, told the BBC in Rouen on Sunday: "for me, it is very important to be here today. It should be shown physically, because until now the Muslim community did a lot of things that were not seen."

"Today we wanted to show physically, by kissing the family of Jacques Hamel, by kissing His Grace Lebrun in front of everybody, so they know that the two communities are united."

Archbishop of Rouen, Dominique Lebrun, told the French news channel BFMTV said he felt very touched . "It's an important gesture of fraternity. They've told us, and I think they're sincere, that it's not Islam which killed Jacques Hamel."

Speaking on the flight back from World Youth Day in Krakow, Pope Francis said Islam should never be equated with terrorism. He said: "I do not like to speak of Islamic violence because every day when I look through the papers, I see violence here in Italy. And they are baptised Catholics. There are violent Catholics. If I speak of Islamic violence, I also have to speak of Catholic violence.