The political transformation of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, were all to a greater degree supported by the citizens of that country. The Libyan "rebels" (non Gadaffi loyalists) had NATO support and Iraq was completely achieved by direct US intervention. Iraq is where the issue of Sectarianism raised its ugly head. Shia's (the majority) so long under the repression of the Sunni backed Saddam, now hold the reigns of power. The idea of Shia's in power scare the Sunni ruled Kingdoms of Saudia Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, because they have their own repressed Shia population. However, none of the deposed leaders Mubarak, Gaddafi, Boutfika of Tunisia, ever spoke directly to their people as Assad has done so here. There is no doubt that a dictatorship has ruled Syria for 40 years and like all dictatorships the use of " secret police" are used. Yet, Assad does bring up some interesting  points using the word "Takfiri"to describe the ideology used by Sunni Salafists to justify the killing of other Muslims.  Muslims have killed Muslims for centuries, but the pertinence here is for its use to try and divide Syrian society because outside of being critical of the government, Syrians enjoyed a cosmopolitan and prosperous life with no religious ideology to stuff out those rights.