When French-born Muslim Elyazid Benferhat heard of the deadly Islamic extremist attack on a church in Nice, he decided to act.

Benferhat and a friend gathered a group of young Muslim men together in the small southern French town of Lodeve.

The group stood guard outside the town's cathedral for the All Saints' holiday weekend. Their goal was to symbolically protect it and show solidarity with Catholic churchgoers.

Parishioners at the 13th-century church were deeply touched. The parish priest said their gesture gave him hope in a time of turmoil.

Benferhat was born in France and grew up speaking only French, his mother is a native of Algeria.

"But I am also Muslim ..., and we have seen Islamophobia in this country, and terrorism," he told The Associated Press.

"In recent years, every time Islamic extremist violence strikes France, French Muslims face new stigmatization, even though we had nothing to do with it."

When three people were killed in the Notre Dame Basilica in Nice, Benferhat said he was so sickened that he wanted to do something "so that everyone wakes up."

Benferhat works for French oil company Total and coaches at a local football club.

He talked to a Muslim friend who was in Nice that day, "and we had this idea. We needed to do something beyond paying homage to the victims. We said, we will protect churches ourselves."

They recruited volunteers among their friends and at his football club, and guarded the church that night and again for Sunday Mass. He said they also coordinated with local police, after France's government promised to increase security at sensitive religious sites.

"It's very good, these young people who are against violence," the cathedral's priest, the Rev. Luis Iniguez, told the AP. He hung a photo of the 'guards' inside the Gothic cathedral. "People were happy to see that," Iniguez said.

Benferhat said the response has been "90% positive." But there had been online invective from some far-right voices.

Benferhat and his group intend to to repeat their action for Christmas. He is encouraging Muslims in other towns to follow Lodeve's lead.

Due to Covid-19 all religious services are banned in France until Dec 1.

Sources

US News

The mass was celebrated in Notre Dame Basilica on Nov. 1 by Nice Bishop André Marceau. He was joined by Archbishop Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille and Archbishop Dominique-Marie David of Monaco.

The rite was necessary to purify the church from the stain of a "gravely injurious act."

The ritual was required before normal religious activities could resume, according to a statement on the website of the Diocese of Nice.

Amid high security, the bishops, joined by priests of the diocese, wore penitential purple for the evening event.

The rite began when the church, with its altar stripped and bare, was plunged into darkness.

The interior of the church was then blessed with holy water before the lights were turned on again. The bishops had changed their vestments to white to signify the Resurrection.

Bishop Marceau condemned the violence that had desecrated the basilica.

"The stones cannot cry out their horror," he said. "The abomination of the terrorist act marred the destination and vocation of this place.

Photographs of the three victims were displayed in the church. The faithful were encouraged to light candles for them.

Vincent Loquès, 55, the sacristan, died inside the church along with Nadine Devillers, 60.

Brazilian-born Simone Barreto Silva, 44, died in a nearby cafe after fleeing with stab wounds. Her last words were reported to be, "Tell my children I love them."

The alleged offender, Brahim Aoussaoui, 21, had entered France after arriving on a migrant boat to Italy in September. He was arrested at the scene and is in a critical condition in hospital from multiple gunshot wounds.

Five others, ages 25-63, have since been arrested in Nice and nearby Grasse in connection with the killings.

They are suspected of assisting Aoussaoui after he was dispatched to France to carry out the attack, according to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

The is the second significant Nice terror attack. In 2016 a truck was driven through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day. The attack resulted in the deaths of 86 people and injury to 458 others.

In another attack at a French church on Oct. 31, a Greek Orthodox priest was shot and badly injured in the French city of Lyon. No motive for the shooting has been discovered.

Sources

The Tablet

France24