Lots of people were in Al-Qaeda because it offered safety from being murdered by Al-Quaeda. Their recruitment process was largely stick, and only a little carrot.

He was. Later on he fell out with them and actively fought them.

He started out as a hardcore Islamist and turned into a moderate Islamist.

Yep, after US invasion of Iraq he went to iraq join al qaeda, he is proud of it and it's not really something he tries to hide.

Then after being captured and released (because he faked being a random Iraqi dude) he went home to Syria and took up arms against bashar (old Syrian president)

Would it have mattered? You're being invaded on a false pretense and everything around you is getting destroyed, either by the extremists or the invaders that never face any consequences when they kill terrorists or civilians.

What options do you have?