text: Just who have the Assads persecuted? What segment of the Syrian populace? Is it those who want to retain a secular state with Western values that treats religious minorities equally, or are these people who want to overthrow the state and establish an Islamic theocracy? I suspect that those who have been persecuted are members of the latter,  the Sunni majority that believe that Shia and Christians are infidels who should undergo mass extermination. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Syria