Muslim cleric shot dead in Russia
A Muslim cleric is reported to have been shot dead by gunmen in Russia’s southern spa town of Kislovodsk.
The country’s Interfax news agency quoted police as saying the assailants fled late on Monday after killing the imam of a mosque in the doorway of an apartment block where he lived.
A police officer was also wounded when trying to stop two armed people in the street.
Kislovodsk, like many parts of southern Russia, has a strong Russian nationalist Christian community which eyes with suspicion the growth of a Muslim population arriving from the impoverished Caucasus region.
Ethnic tensions in many parts of Russia have become a cause of concern for authorities, alarmed by the increase in racist attacks.
Analysts have said that by the year 2020, one in ten Russians could be Muslim.