Fuck Muhammad!!!

[HairOfTheDog]

Some of the Syrian rebels/revolutionaries/Springers -- whatever you wanna call them -- have been fighting the interloping thugs for years. And, thousands of Syrian rebel troops have been trained by coalition forces in Turkey over the last year and are battling IS now.

But, since they share a common goal of getting rid of Assad, there seems to have been a good deal of intentional and unintentional partnering between other rebels factions and the IS thugs; making it reportedly difficult on the streets to differentiate between those who are fighting for a new democratically-elected secular regime vs. those who want to establish an Islamic caliphate. The IS thugs wormed their way in with some rebel factions under the false pretense that they were part of the "freedom fighter" forces, I suspect, and were welcomed by other rebel factions who were getting their asses kicked for a while by the Syrian Army.

I believe there's no chance you'll see the Arab Spring stand against the IS thugs in full until/unless Assad is ousted. Then, they'll be battling each other to fill that power vacuum, IMO.

P.s. The Kurds, always badass, have been taking on IS hard in both Iraq and Syria. If everyone had the same strength and determination, it would likely have been a much warmer Spring.