Syria's main opposition group, the Syrian National Council,
is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni group. The Council's President, George Sabra, a Christian Communist (sic), is a fig leaf for the Muslim extremists. The Brotherhood and an al Quaeda-affiliated group, control "the ground", so the Syrian National Council is essentially irrelevant in any event. Two Christian Bishops have been kidnapped by the muslims and one of the two rebel groups has told Syrian Christians to "flee or be killed". There are 2-1/2 million Christians in Syria, comprising 10% of the population. Assad has protected the Christian minority, much as Mubarak protected Egypt's twelve million Christians. "Liberal" Syrians have no more chance of gaining influence if Assad is removed than Egyptian "liberals" did. Syria would, like Egypt, become a Sunni Muslim theocracy if Assad is removed. Many Christians would be slaughtered, unlike Egypt where they have broader influence. The Saudis, Sunnis themselves, support the rebels.
Over the coming weeks, we will be told that the international community has assured that, in return for military support, the Syrian opposition has granted greater power to "liberals", aka secularists. This will be a lie.
[Over the coming weeks, we will be told that the international community has assured that, in return for military support, the Syrian opposition has granted greater power to “liberals”, aka secularists. This will be a lie.]
Even if the new order promised to protect Christians the more radical factions, embedded in a newly constituted police and military, would make life unbearable for them.
In Iraq, where the Shia dominate, more than half the Christians have left because nobody can guarantee their safety.
The post-colonial Middle Eastern leaders, including Assad's father, were secularists. This reflected the “modernist” view that theocracies were doomed to perpetual medievalism.
Now the fundamentalists are poised to be the new establishment across the whole region. This will be a dark age, at least as seen from the outside.