Media had spread call to take action against him for his work among Muslims.

ISTANBUL, July 28 (CDN) --- A pastor in the Russian republic of Dagestan
known for founding the biggest Protestant church in the region and for
successfully reaching out to Muslims has been killed by unidentified
gunmen, local authorities have confirmed.

Artur Suleimanov, 49, pastor of Hosanna Christian Church in Makhachkala,
the capital of Dagestan, was shot on the evening of July 15 while
leaving his church building.

The identity of the shooters remains unclear, but in the weeks leading
up to the killing, Dagestan media broadcast calls for people to take
measures against Suleimanov because he was too "active" and converted
ethnic Muslims.

Suleimanov founded Hosanna Christian Church in Makhachkala in 1994. It
started out as a small prayer group, but now with 1,000 members it is
the largest Protestant church in the Northern Caucacus region. According
to a letter Suleimanov wrote to Compass several years ago, 80 percent of
the congregation is made up of former Muslims.

The congregation established other branch churches throughout Dagestan
and a formal Bible study center at the Makhachkala church. Suleimanov
also equipped the church to distribute food and other aid to residents
of the poverty-ridden country.

His death follows the shooting of Orthodox priest Daniil Sisoev of
St.Thomas church in Moscow last November; a Muslim group claimed
responsibility for the slaying.

Suleimanov is survived by his wife, Zina, and five children.

Dagestan is a small Russian republic of about 2.6 million people in the
Caucacus Mountains on the border with Chechnya. Ethnic Avars, Dargins
and Lezgins, who are all traditionally Muslim, make up almost 75 percent
of Dagestan's population. In total, 91 percent of the population is
Muslim, with the remaining 9 percent being Christian, mostly Russian
Orthodox.

Because of Dagestan's location, its population is trapped in a
long-standing feud between Russia and the Chechen separatists fighting
next door. The political realities of the conflict often bleed into
Dagestan, resulting in civilian deaths.

The Russian government has from time to time cracked down on the
Wahhabis, a sect of Sunni Islam with separatist tendencies. The Muslims
in turn persecute Christians, because they see Christianity, and
Orthodoxy in particular, as a Russian religion. Many converts to
Christianity have to practice their faith in small, discreet home groups.

As an ethnic Avar, Suleimanov was considered by many Muslims to be an
apostate and therefore deserving of death. But part of his success in
reaching people was the fact that he was native to the region.
Missionaries from outside Dagestan have met with mixed success.

In 1998, Herbert Gregg, one of the few U.S. pastors to live in Dagestan,
was kidnapped. He was taken to Chechnya, where he was tortured,
including having one of his fingers cut off. He was released after eight
months of captivity and no longer lives in Russia.

Sergei Ryakhovsky, a Pentecostal minister active in Russia who presided
over Suleimanov's funeral, compared his killing to the 2009 shooting of
Orthodox priest Sisoev.

On Nov. 19, 2009, a masked gunman entered St. Thomas church in Moscow
and shot Sisoev four times. Sisoev, who was also known for his work
among Muslims, died while being transported to a hospital. Before the
shooting, he received numerous death threats from Islamic activists.
After the shooting, a Muslim group claimed responsibility for the killing.

A month later in Makhachkala, Russian law enforcement officers shot and
killed Beksultan Kerybekov. According to police, Kerybekov pulled out a
pistol and threw a grenade at a police substation when traffic officers
stopped him to check his identification. Police later said the pistol
found on his body forensically matched the weapon used in the Sisoev
slaying.

"It seems that [Suleimanov's killing] is in the same row with the murder
of the Orthodox priest," Ryakhovsky said to Interfaks-religion news
agency. "But you cannot scare Christians with murders; for Christians to
die for Christ is an honor."

One of the publications calling for action against Suleimanov drew links
between the missionary activities of Suleimanov and Sisoev among Muslims.

The Moscow-based Slavic Centre for Law and Justice and the Institute of
Law and Religion issued a statement about Suleimanov shortly after the
shooting. Saying he was a charming man and one of the most well-known
Christian ministers in Russia, they called him a "true missionary with
fervent heart and sincere faith."

"He was a man of faith who fearlessly preached the gospel, sharing the
faith in Christ with people even in difficult circumstances," the
statement read. "Since the beginning of his mission, Pastor Artur
Suleimanov prayed for the salvation of Dagestan nations, despite all the
difficulties and threatening that the community and preachers faced."

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