MOSCOW, December 27 (RIA Novosti) - Representatives of Russia’s Muslim community condemned Thursday the murder of North Ossetia’s deputy mufti, which has raised worries over the safety of clerics in the North Caucasus.
Ibragim Dudarov was found shot dead inside his car on a road near the North Caucasus republic’s capital of Vladikavkaz, a spokesman for the local Investigative Committee said on Thursday.
The attack took place around 11 p.m. on Wednesday night as 34-year-old Dudarov was driving home, North Ossetian mufti Khadzhi-Murat Gatsalov said.
“He was shot at close range. A total of five shots were fired,” Gatsalov said.
The Russian Council of Muftis expressed its condolences over Dudarov’s death and called on law enforcement agencies to find the killers.
“This killing is more proof that the enemies of Islam don’t want peace" in North Ossetia, Russia or anywhere else, the council’s head and Russia’s chief mufti, Ravil Gainutdin, said in an open letter.
A senior Muslim cleric in the North Caucasus, Ismail Berdiyev, said that the killing showed that “everyone preaching traditional Islam is taking a stand against extremism and is therefore at risk.”
Investigators said on Thursday they were not ruling out any motive for the crimes, but local officials believe Dudarov's murder was connected with his professional activities.
Gatsalov insisted that Dudarov had been attacked for his work as a cleric.
“This man died for his faith. I think it is linked to his work,” Gatsalov said. “Someone doesn’t want this kind of Islam in North Ossetia,” he said, without elaborating on who could be behind the murder. He added that his deputy was “a peaceful man.”
Gatsalov said that Dudarov had taken some time off from his work with the Spiritual Board of Muslims in the North Caucasus, the republic’s leading Muslim organization promoting moderate Islam, for personal reasons: his mother was ill and he has a daughter who was born less than one month ago.
Dudarov, a gradute of Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, had served as the deputy mufti for five years and supervised educational projects. He also served at the Cathedral Mosque in Vladikavkaz as imam.
A criminal case has been opened on charges of murder and illegal firearms possession.
A funeral ceremony for Dudarov has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon at his home in the village of Chmi, where he was heading last night.
Attacks on senior Muslim clerics have become more frequent in Russia’s republics in recent years.
In August, Muslim cleric and prominent Sufi sheikh Said Atsayev, 74, was killed in a suicide bombing in the volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Earlier in July, the head mufti in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, Ildus Faizov, was injured in a car bomb attack, hours after his former deputy was shot dead.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the leader of Ingushetia, which borders North Ossetia, said that local law enforcement had foiled at least three other attacks on clerics this year.
Updates article originally filed at 11:16 a.m. with more quotes, reaction and biographical details.
