Pastor Artur Suleimanov
Dagestan (MNN) ― Authorities in Dagestan are trying to find the underlying cause of the July 16 murder of 49-year-old Artur Suleimanov. He pastored the largest church in the capital city, with an active inner city outreach.
Joel Griffith with Slavic Gospel Association says Suleimanov was shot just outside of the Hosanna House of Prayer in Makhachkala and died of his wounds a short time later, at the hospital. He leaves behind a wife and five children. Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.
Griffith says police are trying to answer many questions now. "There's a question as to whether or not this might have been committed by Muslim extremists. There were some other questions about whether it might have been because of the church's businesses that were involved. You have an awful lot of organized crime that tries to put pressure on private businesses of any sort."
Forum 18 reported that this was not the first time the church and pastor had run-ins. The attack on Suleimanov came after he was alleged harassed by the government. He said his church had a five-year agreement allowing prison visits "abruptly canceled in early 2010" while officials also "changed" their earlier positive assessment of the church's work with drug addicts.
Could this incident be a precursor to more? The emerging pattern can't be disregarded. Griffith says, "It's troubling in the sense that, for the first time that I can think of in recent years, we've had an evangelical pastor within Russia murdered like that."
SGA sponsors a church planter in the region and partners with another pastor. Will their ministry suffer? "The growing pressure on evangelical Christians in these regions, I think, is such that we're probably going to being seeing a lot more security consciousness in terms of ministry and supportive ministries."
Pray for the safety of Suleimanov‘s surviving family and church. Ask God for justice in this attack. Pray that violence in the region would not intimidate Christians into silence.
