KAZAN, Russia -- The acting mufti of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, Abdulla Adygamov, says all candidates nominated to serve as imams should be thoroughly checked if they got religious education abroad.
On July 1, the Spiritual Directorate of Tatarstan's Muslims sent an official request to the republic's parliament asking to introduce amendments to the republic's law on religions to limit the number of foreign-educated clerics who serve in Muslim parishes.
The move comes less than two weeks after Tatarstan Mufti Ildus Faizov was injured in a car bombing and his former deputy and close associate Valiulla Yakupov was shot dead near his house in Kazan.
Yakupov was an active critic of religious extremism and often expressed negative opinions about Islamic radicalism.
With reporting by Interfax