Two Bishops carrying out relief work in northern Syria appear to have been kidnapped by rebels, underscoring the increasingly sectarian dimension of the conflict. Syria’s minorities have long worried about their future if Assad falls, fearing a similar fate to that of their counterparts elsewhere in the Middle East.
Indeed, of all the Arab Spring’s various let-downs the failure to protect minorities is perhaps the most glaring. The attacks on Christians in Egypt earlier this month which resulted in two deaths and left close to 100 people hospitalised epitomises the decay of any pluralistic promise the Arab revolutions may have once offered. Those attacks followed the effective eradication of Jewish life from Egypt last year. The Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria was the last functioning centre of Jewish worship in the country and was maintained by an Israeli Rabbi of Egyptian descent.
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