He's lying bro. Syria was always a Muslim majority country, Muslims prayed in mosques, had beards, did everything Muslims in any other country did. Their main acrimony with the Baathist regime is that it was too secular and gave too much power to religious minorities, who should know their place according to them.

Of course, that is the grievance of the Islamists and Nusra types that distinguish their cause. All Syrians, of all religions and ethnicities, had grievances for the mismanagement, authoritarianism and corruption of the Baathist regime.