Kareem Fahim writes in the NYTimes:

DAMASCUS, Syria - This country, which had sought to show solidarity with Islamist groups and allow religious figures a greater role in public life, has recently reversed course, moving forcefully to curb the influence of Muslim conservatives in its mosques, public universities and charities.

The government has asked imams for recordings of their Friday sermons and started to strictly monitor religious schools. Members of an influential Muslim women's group have now been told to scale back activities like preaching or teaching Islamic law. And this summer, more than 1,000 teachers who wear the niqab, or the face veil, were transferred to administrative duties.

The crackdown, which began in 2008 but has gathered steam this summer, is an effort by President Bashar al-Assad to reassert Syria's traditional secularism in the face of rising threats from radical groups in the region, Syrian officials say.

The policy amounts to a sharp reversal for Syria, which for years tolerated the rise of the conservatives. And it sets the government on the seemingly contradictory path of moving against political Islamists at home, while supporting movements like Hamas and Hezbollah abroad.

Syrian officials are adamant that the shifts stem from alarming domestic trends, and do not affect support for those groups, allies in their struggle against Israel. At the same time, they have spoken proudly about their secularizing campaign, though they have been reluctant to reveal its details. Some Syrian analysts view that as an overture to the United States and European nations, which have been courting Syria as part of a strategy to isolate Iran and curb the influence of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Human rights advocates say the policy exacerbates pressing concerns: the arbitrary imprisonment of Islamists, as well as the continued failure to allow them any political space.

Of course, all the Muslim Brothers want is a little political space.  Hafez al-Assad was much stronger than Bashar. If Bashar is now moving against the Brothers it is probably at the urging of the mullahs in Iran. As Hugh Fitzgerald has pointed out many times, the ruling Alawites are a sect which is considered apostate by the majority Sunnis. Shi'a Iran has issued a fatwa declaring them to be real Muslims. The Assad family and the rest of the Alawites are walking an increasingly dangerous tightrope between the Sunnis and the Shi'a and the Shi'a are growing quickly in Syria which is making the Sunnis nervous. One wonders whether the Alawites will survive the next 25 years. Right now they are useful to the mullahs, who are using Syria to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, but that situation might not endure.