Modern Syria was borne of the French Mandate. Suleiman Assad, the grandfather of Syria's embattled dictator Bashir al Assad warned France of the dangers of a Sunni Islam takeover in 1936: "The spirit of fanaticism and narrow-mindedness, whose roots are deep in the heart of the Arab Muslims toward all those who are not Muslim, is the spirit that continually feeds the Islamic religion, and therefore there is no hope that the situation will change. If the Mandate is cancelled, the danger of death and destruction will be a threat upon the minorities in Syria, even if the cancellation [of...