WALL STREET JOURNAL ARTICLE: By Pechter Polls Consultant

May 30, 2012, 6:03 p.m. ET

What Does the Syrian Opposition Believe?

A confidential survey of activists inside the country shows limited

support for Islamists but high admiration for the U.S. and Turkey

By DAVID POLLOCK

There are increasing calls for international intervention in Syria after this weekend’s massacre in Houla, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces murdered more than 100 civilians. Obstacles to intervention remain, however, especially concern that the opposition to Assad’s regime is dominated by religious fundamentalists. Until recently, for example, the Syrian National Council, a group of exiled opponents of the regime, was led by Burhan Ghalioun, whose unwillingness to counter the Muslim Brotherhood was widely viewed in the West as a troubling sign of Islamist …