The author shouldn't have used a "but" here. Most islamic countries are socialist in nature or spirit, saddam hussein was actually a hardcore stalinist, and modeled himself and his governments philosophy after stalin. (If you wanted him to like you, all you had to do was give him one of two kinds of things, somthing with his image on it, or something related to stalin).
The full name of the baath party is actually the baath socialist party. These countries actually are structurally socialist.