VOA常速英语:After Terror Attacks, French Communities Fear Backlash(翻译)

The bells tolled at Rouen’s ancient cathedral, but more tourists than worshippers come. This is modern secular France. And the influence of the Catholic Church is waning, which is why the July killing by two jihadists of an elderly priest – Father Jacques Hamel was almost impossible to comprehend.A painting of Hamel by a Muslim artist at the cathedral symbolizes the will of Muslims and Christians to coexist.

In nearby St. Etienne du Rouvray, where Hamel was killed, this is Sunday Mass at one of his parishes.A shrinking and aging congregation, a church in disrepair. Years ago, as a sign of good will, the church gave some of its land for a mosque next door.

“There were people who found it a bit bizarre because the land was given to them for one franc at the time.It was symbolic, that was all.They gave the land.There were people who said, ‘Oh, now we’re going to have that mosque and there will be all these Arabs here.’That was the thinking for sure.”

The mosque has thrived. At Friday prayers, an overflow crowd sits outdoors. Leaders of both communities are proud of this gate between the church and the mosque.It serves as a vent for concerns, a passage from anxiety to understanding. After Father Hamel’s killing, Catholics invited Muslims to Mass and Muslims invited Catholics to Friday prayers.But in recent years the common bond in religion to tackle problems has become at times a wedge.

“In the community before religious matters were not touched, rather we talked about brotherhood.In the 1980s we talked about racist and economic issues, things like that.It is true that religious issues came into the conversation at the time of the Gulf War.It was then one felt people became more interested in religion.”

There is concern that fears over differences could be eroding the good willand giving rise to right-wing anti-immigrant sentiment.

“The anxiety with which we are living with inevitably every day is because we are entering in France a period of preparation for the presidential elections.The debates are not always, let’s say, they are not always peaceful. The invective, the topics are very violent and could injure communities.”

In Rouen, those tensions are largely kept quiet.Local officials of the right-wing National Front National declined comment.But since the attacks, the party’s numbers have gone up in the polls.

At the church where Father Hamel was killed, some are troubled by the quiet.

A commitment to secularism more than Catholicism binds France today. A light show at Rouen’s cathedral draws the city’s residents.The challenge for them is how to bridge the differences with a growing minority and keep good will and secularism alive.