Masked Gunman Kills Russian Priest in Moscow Church

A masked gunman entered a Moscow church and murdered a Russian Orthodox priest who had received death threats for converting Muslims to Christianity and criticising Islam, prosecutors and church officials said on Friday. The killing could threaten delicate relations between the powerful majority Russian Orthodox Church, which has close ties to the Kremlin, and the country's growing Muslim minority of about 20 million. The gunman approached priest Daniil Sysoyev, 34, in St Thomas Church in southern Moscow on Thursday night, checked his name and then opened fire with a pistol, a spokesman for the investigating committee of the Prosecutor-General's office said. Anatoly Bagmet, spokesman of investigating committee of the prosecutor-general's office, said soon after the crime: We are working on several versions why it happened, main theory is that religious motives are behind the crime.Sysoyev died on the way to hospital. His choirmaster was injured in the attack, Bagmet said, and is in hospital under armed guard. Priest Ioann of the St.Thomas church didn't want to speculate who might stay behind the murder.Russia is home to Europe's largest Muslim community and Islam is the country's second-biggest faith, something which Sysoyev criticised. Islam is far from being a religion in the way we understand it, he said in one of his video lectures posted on YouTube. Sysoyev was from Tatarstan, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia on the Volga river. He also wrote books including An Orthodox Response to Islam and Marrying a Muslim, in which he advised Russian women against taking a Muslim partner. Russia has seen a religious revival after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dominant Orthodox Church has become an important political force. Its leader, Patriarch Kirill, is frequently seen in public with Russian and foreign leaders. But Orthodox bishops have complained that rival Christian denominations are seeking to make converts on its territory and Islam is spreading fast among a sprawling community of migrants from predominantly Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union. Russia's Chief Mufti Ravil Gainuddin expressed condolences to the Orthodox Church and to Sysoyev's family.We want to say that we oppose any expressions of terrorism and extremism. Islam denounces terror and the murder of an imam, an orthodox priest, is an awful sin, he added. He cautioned against assigning blame prematurely or speculating about the motives for the killing. Sysoyev was also well known for preaching against small religious groupings such as Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, viewed as totalitarian sects by the Orthodox Church.