It's naive to think that the Saudis support the rebels out of a sense of religious piety. They do it because they are fighting their geopolitical rival Iran. They reason that they would much rather lure al-qaeda to Syria to fight against Assad instead of fighting them themselves in Arabia. Would you rather the islamists stay in Afghanistan to kill Americans than go to Syria to kill other muslims? I don't.
I’m calling it a night. Thanks for the great comments. And I apologize in advance if any hint of snideness, rudeness or snarkiness was to be found in any of my responses. It’s easy to get carried away on the interwebs.