Nope, it was an Arab Christian, Michael Aflaq.
It's fundamentals are essentially a rabid Nazi-like Arab Nationalism, and at its root is basically atheist like Nazism, but in the last 10 years Saddam has ham-handedly tried to overlay Ba'athism with Islam in an attempt to curry favor with the rest of the Arab world.
Even Joe Stalin resurrected the Russian Orthodox church when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union.