The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Hassoun Badreddin — the spiritual leader of Sunni Islam, said the bishops are now being held in Turkey, according to a Russian news agency.

He said that the abduction of the two prelates — Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi, both of Aleppo — was staged by Chechen militants and their Turkish confederates.

Previous reports of the kidnapping said the bishops were taken by Syrian rebels.

According to the Grand Mufti, the kidnapping may be linked to Ankara's request to transfer the seat of the Greek Orthodox patriarchate of Antioch from Syria to Turkey.

A similar report came from a Middle East news agency, which claimed that Turkish intelligence services had seen the bishops alive where they are being held, near the town of Azaz, close to the Turkish border.

A Lebanese televison station reported the head of Lebanon's secret services, General Abbas Ibrahim, as saying negotiations are under way for the release of the bishops.

A Vatican Insider report said this statement was probably in response to widespread discontent among Lebanese Christians, who had hoped to see the two prelates included in an agreement which led to the release of nine Shiite pilgrims who disappeared in Syria in May 2012.

General Ibrahim negotiated an exchange of prisoners with Qatar's foreign affairs minister. The agreement ensured the release of two Turkish pilots who were abducted by Shiite militia in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has met the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, Youhanna X Yazigi, who is the brother of the missing Bishop Yazigi.

Youhanna X Yazigi is leader of all Greek Orthodox communities in the Middle East.

Sources:

AsiaNews

Vatican Insider

Vatican Insider

Image: Sat 7 Christian Satellite Television

Now that women are having to cover up with the abaya, or at least keep a veil handy when they venture out, just in case (something previously inconceivable in Syria), now the press is reporting the establishment of sharia courts which, according to the Washington Post, pass sentences "daily and indiscriminately" on Christians and anyone else who violates precepts of Wahhabi Islam.

Now that the economy has been brought to its knees by the widespread destruction and looting of stores and workshops; now that famine is at hand in the city of Aleppo, and foodstuffs are to be had only at enormous prices; now that the terrorists have reached Homs and Aleppo and the mountains above Damascus—now at last the press seems to have stopped describing the rebels' fight as a high-minded struggle for "freedom."

Syrian culture used to be distinctive among the lands of the Middle East for a coexistence between Christians and Muslims which went beyond mere tolerant forbearance, a reality of which Syrians were proud. Under the iron fist of the ruling Alawite dictators, who kept fundamentalists at bay, a good degree of religious freedom was preserved. Christians fleeing persecution in other Middle East countries found refuge in Assad's Syria, including Iraqi Catholics fleeing post-Saddam persecution. Continue reading

Sources

• The Catholic World Report
• Image: Future Challenges