(JTA) — An attack against a Catholic church in France is an attack against all religions, the head of the European Jewish Congress said.

Two attackers who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State killed an 84-year-old priest and critically wounded at least one other person during a terror attack on a Catholic church in Normandy on Tuesday morning. The attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or God is great, before slitting the priest’s throat, according to reports.

The terrorists, who took the priest, two nuns and two parishioners hostage during morning Mass and later were shot and killed by police, were claimed by the Islamic State as its “soldiers” following the attack.

“An attack against a religious institution and a man of God is an attack against all religions and faith itself,” Dr. Moshe Kantor, president of the EJC, said in a statement following the attack. “This dastardly attack will only strengthen our resolve to defeat the enemy of Islamist terrorism.”

“This attack targets us all decent Europeans, Christians, Jews and Muslims alike,” he said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin called on the free world to “fight to defend” our values.

“This attack shows the true face of the brutal nature and horror of terrorism. This is an attack by radical extremists, terrorists, who have struck at the very symbol of peace and murdered in cold blood in a house of God, while they pretend to speak in His name,” Rivlin said, and also said that Israel “stands side by side with the people of France.”

“The whole free world must understand that our values are under attack. We must fight to defend them, lest we be overtaken by waves of intolerance and hatred,” he said.