The circumstances of the murder in Moscow of a Russian Orthodox priest violently against Islam raise the specter not only of more ethnic violence in Russia. The story also has eerie elements reminiscent of dangers in the United States from religious intolerance fueled by Conservative commentators. May this account serve as a warning to a country that usually does not care about other nations' experience.
The murdered man, 35-year-old Father Daniil Sysoyev, was a dedicated crusader for his Christian faith and he blasted other religions in his published writings for failing to take what he believed was the only true path to God, which he said leads through the Orthodox Church. His superiors praise his active role in what they term "missionary work." On Thursday last week, he was holding what his church called his "traditional Thursday talks" from his missionary point of view. Afterwards he was hearing confessions from his parishioners when a man burst into the church shortly before 11 pm and asked for him in a loud voice. The priest came out to see what the noise was about, and the man shot him twice, in the head and neck. The assailant also shot the choirmaster in the chest. Father Sysoyev was taken to a hospital where he died a little over an hour later. The choirmaster survived.
Eyewitnesses were unable to describe the assailant's face because they said he was wearing a flu mask, but they agreed that he was a "kavkazets," a man from the Caucasus. "Kavkazets" can be a loaded word in Russia with a negative meaning like the one attached to "spic" in the US. The assailant managed to get away. The Moscow authorities are engaged in a high-level search for the man, but they have not yet reported any success in finding him. Russian security experts say the murder has the hallmarks of a professional killer because the assailant was able to shoot his revolver with a high degree of accuracy on the spur of the moment from a distance of 20 feet in a dark church and mortally wound his victim.
The murder has brought out the various opposing groups and revealed some details of the ongoing dispute between Christians and Muslims in Russia, especially in Moscow. Father Sysoyev had written a number of books and brochures about what he identified as the disastrous shortcomings of other religions, especially Islam. He was reported also to be active in trying to convert Muslims to Russian Orthodoxy. His webpage, which has been attacked by hackers, has had a piece he wrote entitled Can the Koran Claim to be the Word of God? Muslims believe God Himself dictated the Koran to Muhammad. Father Sysoyev ripped the Koran apart in his writings and pointed out how only the Bible can be the true word of the Almighty.
A leading Muslim cleric in Russia, Nafigulla Ashirov, sued Father Sysoyev because of one of his brochures against Islam and called him Russia's Salman Rushdie, the British Indian writer against whom the Iranian Revolutionary leader in 1989 pronounced a sentence of death for what Rushdie had written about Islam.
There is great opposition in Moscow to illegal immigrants, some of whom are Muslims. Leaders of a Russian organization called the Movement Against Illegal Immigration have called on the authorities to investigate Nafigulla Ashirov who they say had "in actual fact appealed for the murder of Sysoyev."
Meanwhile Russian Conservatives have been marshalling their forces. There is a group called the Union of Russian Orthodox Citizens, which is described as a "religious, patriotic organization." One of its stated aims is "criticism of Islam, Islamic books, representatives and organizations as well as support of anti-Islamic books." Its leader, Valentin Lebedev, said his organization had no doubts that "enemies of Russian Orthodoxy" murdered Father Sysoyev. The organization has offered a reward for information leading to the capture of the assailant.
The radical right has called for Russia to drop its moratorium on the death penalty to deal with criminals like the priest's murderer. One of their leaders said: "You don't want to hang murderers, and they're going to continue murdering as they have been doing."
The Russian Patriarch has urged people not to jump to conclusions about what is behind the murder of the priest and to wait for the authorities to do their job. An earlier statement by the Patriarch, however, sounds ominous. He said the murder of a priest in a church is a challenge to the law of God, "a desecration of the holy items given to us by the Lord Himself." "And this sin," he said, "God will not leave unavenged."