Juan Cole

Things are going from bad to worse for the US in Pakistan. Now the Muttahida Majlis-i Amal or United Action Council, which groups six religious parties, is making a bid to actually form the national government in parliament. They put forward the firebrand pro-Taliban cleric Fazlur Rahman as potential prime minister. The MMA has pledged […]

Blowback from Reagan’s Afghanistan Policy The relevant information on the role of the US in encouraging the Chinese and the Pakistanis to arm the Mujahidin with ever more sophisticated weaponry is in a Washington Post article of July 20, 1992, by Steve Coll, of the Post’s Foreign Service. Orrin Hatch and Ikle, with some others, […]

Saudis Refuse Participation in an Iraq War The Saudis are again saying as loudly as they can that Saudi Arabia will not take part in any attack on Iraq. Prince Sultan, the minister of defense, said that Saudi Arabia would not “provide any assistance in any strikes against Iraq.” His reasoning appeared to be that […]

Bali Nightclub Bombing The death toll keeps rising in the bombing on Saturday of two nightclubs on the Indonesian island of Bali. Today I saw 187 given as the number of dead, with over 300 wounded. After September 11, any such scenes of a burning blast site just tear me up inside. I think of […]

Pakistan Election Results The Pakistan People’s Party, led by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, seems set to attempt to form a government in coalition with the Muslim League (QA) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. All three have a more or less secular orientation. PPP and ML (QA) are the two largest parties in parliament. The European Union […]

The Failure of Reagan’s Afghanistan Policy The Reagan administration policy in Afghanistan was not a “most successful departure” but, in my opinion, an absolute disaster that led in many ways directly to September 11. The Soviet Union was already on its last legs economically in the 1980s. As the empire collapsed, a Soviet-dominated Afghanistan would […]

Opposition to Musharraf wins Big in Pakistan Early returns available in the Pakistani elections held October 10 reveal a strong anti-Musharraf tendency among those few who could be bothered to go to the polls (turnout was reportedly light, presumably in response to Musharraf’s having made it clear that the army would continue to retain ultimate […]

Bin Laden and Pakistan’s Elections A letter is being distributed in Peshawar allegedly from Usama Bin Laden, urging Pakistanis to vote for the enemies of Gen. Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan’s elections, which are being held October 10. Thousands of copies of the letter in Arabic and Urdu are circulating in the Northwest Frontier Province, where […]

History News Network 10-07-02: Fact & Fiction Jerry Falwell on Muhammad By Juan Cole Mr. Cole is professor of Middle East and South Asian history at the University of Michigan and author of Sacred Space and Holy War (I. B. Tauris, 2002). His web site is www.juancole.com. Jerry Falwell, the fundamentalist televangelist, has said, “I […]