The deputy mufti of the Russian republic of North Ossetia was gunned down Saturday in the latest in a series of assassinations of Muslim leaders in the North Caucasus this year.Rasul Gamzatov, who served as the imam of a mosque in the regional capital Vladikavkaz, was shot at least seven times in the head and chest at the entrance of an apartment building in the city shortly before midnight, the Investigative Committee said on Sunday.
Gamzatov's predecessor as deputy mufti of North Ossetia, Ibragim Dudarov, was also gunned down on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz in December 2012. That case remains unresolved.
The mufti of North Ossetia, Khadzhimurat Gatsalov, said that the murders of his two deputies were most likely connected. He said, "Why is the murder of the first imam not being investigated? Who benefits from killing devout Muslims? This was done by people who want to spread discord in our republic. We have no militants [here] and they do not come here from other places."
North Ossetia's president, Taimuraz Mamsurov, said he thought Gamzatov's slaying could have religious motives. He said, "We will only be able to establish the motives for the crime when the criminals are apprehended and testify. This is either an attempt to destabilize the republic or to create artificial strife between our traditional religions — Islam and Christianity — which have coexisted in peace and harmony in the North Caucasus for centuries."
Gamzatov's murder was the fourth killing of a religious figure in the North Caucasus this year, bringing the total number of such killings since 2009 to 39. Many of those murders have been tied to their views on Islam, which extremists deem too moderate.