http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/20134235221315190.html
Syrian bishops reportedly kidnapped by rebels
Syriac Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Archbishops of Aleppo seized while
carrying out humanitarian work, state media says.
Last Modified: 23 Apr 2013 09:24
Many Christians fear their religious and political rights may not be
protected if rebels overthrow Assad [AFP]
State media in Syria has reported that two Syrian bishops who were
carrying out humanitarian work in the northern province of Aleppo have been
kidnapped.
SANA news agency said the Syriac Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Archbishops
of Aleppo, Yohanna Ibrahim and Paul Yazigi, were seized on Monday in the
village of Kfar Dael.
A Syriac member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Abdulahad
Steifo, said the men had been kidnapped on the road to Aleppo from the
rebel-held Bab al Hawa crossing with Turkey.
Several prominent Muslim clerics have been killed in Syria's uprising
against President Bashar al-Assad, but the two bishops are the most senior
church leaders caught up in the conflict.
Christians make up less than 10 percent of the country's 23 million
people and, like other religious minorities, many have been wary of the mainly
Sunni Muslim uprising against Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of
Shi'ite Islam.
Fears for their future if the rebels were to end 40 years of Assad
dynastic rule, which ensured religious freedom without political rights, have
increased with the growing strength of rebels and a pledge of allegiance to
al-Qaeda by the hardline Nusra Front rebels two weeks ago.
Steifo said Ibrahim had gone to collect Yazigi from the rebel-held Bab
al-Hawa crossing because he had crossed there several times before and was
familiar with the route.
The two men were driving to Aleppo when they were kidnapped, he added.
Asked who was behind their abduction, Steifo said: "All probabilities are
open."
Last September Ibrahim said that hundreds of Christian families had fled
Aleppo as rebels and soldiers battled for control of the country's biggest city.
"In its modern history Aleppo has not seen such critical and painful
times ... Christians have been attacked and kidnapped in monstrous ways and
their relatives have paid big sums for their release," he told Reuters.
In the central city of Homs, which saw the heaviest bloodshed earlier
this year, he said several churches and Christian centres had been damaged in
the fighting.
"Until a few months ago the idea of escaping had not crossed the minds of
the Christians, but after the danger worsened it has become the main topic of
conversation."
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