But four developments dissipated the potential for serious trouble.First, politics evolved along class lines rather than by sectarian division.
He has positioned himself as a reform-minded leader, more in tune with a younger, urban and less sectarian middle class.
Those involved with the network also say it undermines the government's effort to divide and conquer, whether on sectarian, ethnic, class or geographical lines.
The concatenation of factors feeding into the Syrian morass, from meddling foreign powers to sectarian and class schisms, have created a perfect storm that may only be tamed by consuming itself.Which leaves only those small consolations.
With Pakistan threatening to fragment along ethnic, sectarian and class lines, reminding Pakistanis of their culture's glorious common heritage seems like an essential way of shaping a cohesive national identity.
This is the grand drama now being played out in the Arab world — the deeply sincere youth-led quest for liberty and the deeply rooted quests for sectarian, factional, class and tribal advantage.
The transition portion of the Arab League proposal, experts said, reflects a reluctance to see an abrupt government change in Syria, where protesters have been emboldened by the downfalls of Arab autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, but are riven by their own internal sectarian and class divisions and have no clear leader themselves.
Pakistani officials, diplomats and aid workers warn that while civil unrest has so far been averted, the aftermath of the worst-ever flooding in Pakistan could destabilize the country in the months to come and aggravate the already deep regional, sectarian and class fissures.
Class, sectarian and ethnic fault lines run throughout Pakistan.
There are other important faultlines at work too – along sectarian, geographical and class lines, to name a few – but although they help illuminate the daily twists and turns of post-Mubarak Egypt, they are not the underlying fissure that is animating this era.
