Hardly looks like a monomaniacal Islamic nutcase to me...
He’s your standard issue Middle East strongman. He’s bad alright. But if he falls what comes after would be far, far worse.
L
Remember that the Assad family are themselves part of a religious minority, Muslim but not Sunni, the Alawi and they have always been protective of other such groups including the various Christian communities in Syria. That doesn’t mean they’re nice people. Their main means of staying in power has been to run a police state the Stasi would envy and ruthlessly eliminate any opposition before it could get started. That principle opposition is the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, the same radicals that overthrew Mubarak in Egypt and whose main beach head in the USA is at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.