The armed, "Syrian" opposition, that seeks to topple him? Not so much. These are the Wahabbist fighters sponsored by US and Qatari dollars - who'd implement whippings and stonings for teaching girls to read.
The Syrian opposition consists of multiple parties, the one you describe being a small fraction. The sad thing is that they do not agree with each other substantially.
You are making Assad sound like a defender of his country. No doubt that is what he thinks. But he and his army have committed atrocities
The U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria confirms at least 9 intentional mass killings in the period 2012 to mid-July 2013, identifying the perpetrator as Syrian government and its supporters in eight cases, and the opposition in one.[526][527]
By late November 2013, according to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) report entitled “Violence against Women, Bleeding Wound in the Syrian Conflict”, approximately 6,000 women have been raped (including gang-rape) since the start of the conflict - with figures likely to be much higher given that most cases go unreported.[528][529][530]
According to three eminent international lawyers.[531] Syrian government officials could face war crimes charges in the light of a huge cache of evidence smuggled out of the country showing the "systematic killing" of about 11,000 detainees. Most of the victims were young men and many corpses were emaciated, bloodstained and bore signs of torture. Some had no eyes; others showed signs of strangulation or electrocution.
find this and more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Indeed, not genocide, but: When the political opposition started to demonstrate, and Assad began to detain, torture and kill them systematically, these people begged the international community to step in and support peaceful demonstration. These educated, intellectuals, potential leaders -- who could have formed a new Syria -- are dead now. We left them to die. That is precisely why only the radicals are left.