Religious Tensions Erupt in Russian Republic
Updated July 19, 2012, 8:18 p.m. ET
By RICHARD BOUDREAUX
MOSCOW—The top Muslim cleric in Russia's Tatarstan republic was wounded by a car bomb and another senior cleric there was shot and killed in separate attacks that investigators called possible reprisals for their clampdown on radical Islamists.
Thursday's violence, which shook a largely Muslim region often touted as a showcase of religious tolerance, followed more than a year of friction between its moderate Islamic clerical leadership and increasingly assertive groups practicing a puritanical version of Islam known as Salafism.
"It is a serious signal," President Vladimir Putin declared.
Russia's Investigative Committee labeled the attacks, 20 minutes apart, as acts of terrorism. The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said it was looking into the clerics' campaign against religious radicalism as a possible motive.
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