Putin builds allies with those who will let him rise in power.
You know a good thing he has done? Reached out to Jews in Russia. On the down side, he said he will not give the Rebbe's library to Chabad. (Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak זצ״ל).
If Putin supports islamic clerics, it would not surprise me. But his support is not the type of support of being "friends". There are no friends in politics and Putin knows that far better than Barack "everyone loves me" Obama. Putin will keep those who will support him as allies. He can dump anyone as sure as he has dumped Russian oligarchs who did business with him. "Friends" one day- enemies the next. Putin is a smart man. His advantage is that he is NOT favoring the Syrian rebels. Assad and the rebels are no good for Syria- but Assad is the lesser of two evils compared to the rebels, who will turn Syria into an extremist training ground for more anti-America/anti-Israel attacks.
America once supported Afghan rebels in the 80s and we saw how that worked out. Should the rebels (which Obama is supplying with arms now) take over...in a few years it will come back to haunt the US and will taint Obama's legacy. And I mean if a muslim brotherhood type of shariah government takes over Syria and we are (G-d forbid) attacked by Syrian backed terrorists, all fingers will point at Obama. Saying "well, YOU armed them". At least, no one will be pointing at
Putin. In fact, Putin can drop Assad whenever he wants. For now, Assad is holding strong and Russia has no reason to drop him. At any point that the situation is lost, Putin can drop Assad for any excuse and fold their hands while still NOT supplying the rebels.
Obama is betting on the wrong team, it was stupid of him to try to change anyone's minds about the idiotic idea of arming intestine eating rebels. Putin was right on this one. Regardless of who he supports, he made the right call. Does Putin support imams or others like that? Well, all gentile politicians support the wrong people, ALL of them- not just Putin. But I believe in varying degrees of being wrong. At least to me- with Putin being more conservative, he is a step higher than liberal loving Obama.