1. I stipulated as to your facts about Iraq, on this particular thread, Mr. Rustaz, so I'm not sure what the kvetch is in this case. It appears to be a problem with anybody else generating a hypothetical to illustrate a point.
2. No, being a college professor does not make you jesus, or anything remotely resembling a god. Gee.
3. Here are Professor Cole's credentials, which he posts on his website--something that good academics routinely do, and something that a lot of martial artists and conservative whack jobs might learn from.
Professor Juan R. I. Cole
Professor of History
1029 Tisch Hall
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003
Voice: (734) 764-6305, 763-1599
FAX (734) 747-4811
Internet:
Juan R. I. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the History Department of the University of Michigan. A bibliography of his writings may be found here. He has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. He has given numerous media and press interviews on the War on Terrorism since September 11, 2001, as well as concerning the Iraq War in 2003. His current research focuses on two contemporary phenomena: 1) Shiite Islam in Iraq and Iran and 2) the "jihadi" or "sacred-war" strain of Muslim radicalism, including al-Qaeda and the Taliban among other groups. Cole commands Arabic, Persian and Urdu and reads some Turkish, knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam, and lived in a number of places in the Muslim world for extended periods of time. His most recent book is "Sacred Space and Holy War" (IB Tauris 2002). This volume collects some of his work on the history of the Shiite branch of Islam in modern Iraq, "Iran and the Gulf." He treated Shi`ism in his co-edited book, "Shi`ism and Social Protest" (Yale, 1986), of his first monograph, Roots of "North Indian Shi`ism in Iran and Iraq" (California, 1989). His interest in Iranian religion is further evident in his work on Baha'i studies, which eventuated in his 1998 book, "Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth Century Middle East" (Columbia University Press). He has also written a good deal about modern Egypt, including a book, "Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's `Urabi Movement" (Princeton, 1993). His concern with comparative history and Islamics is evident in his edited "Comparing Muslim Societies" (Michigan, 1992).
Professional History
* 1975 B.A. History and Literature of Religions, Northwestern University
* 1978 M.A. Arabic Studies/History, American University in Cairo
* 1984 Ph.D. Islamic Studies, University of California Los Angeles
* 1984-1990 Assistant Professor of History, University of Michigan
* 1990-1995 Associate Professor of History, University of Michigan
* 1992-1995 Director, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of Michigan
* 1995- Professor of History, University of Michigan
Scholastic Awards and Grants ; Hudson Research Professorship, Winter, 2003 ; Award for Research in Turkey, May, 1999, International Institute, U-M ; Research Excellence Award, College of LSA, U-M, August, 1997 ; OVPR and LSA Faculty Assistance Fund Grants, June, 1995 ; LSA Faculty Assistance Fund Grant, March 1994 ; Rackham Research Partnership, 1992-93 ; National Endowment for the Humanities, Jan.-June, 1991 ; Office of the Vice-President for Research, U-M (Pakistan), Summer 1990 ; Horace H. Rackham Faculty Grant, Egypt, Summer 1988 ; SSRC/ACLS Post-Doctoral Award, England, Summer 1986 ; Fulbright-Hays Islamic Civilization Postdoctoral Award, Egypt, 1985-86 ; SSRC/ACLS Doctoral Fellowship, Pakistan, India, UK, 1981-83 ; Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Fellowship, India, 1982
At the University of Michigan, I teach courses on the modern history of the Middle East and on South Asia. I regularly teach a survey, History 443 Modern Middle East History. I also offer with fair regularity an upper-level class, History 542 Modern Iran and the Gulf States. Among my favorite courses, which I do not get to teach as often, is History 456 Mughal India. For graduate students I offer History 664 Studies on the Modern Middle East, History 749 Seminar on the Modern Middle East, and History 793 The Study of the Near East, and have co-taught History 615 Comparative World History. In fall, 1998, I offered for the first time History 334, "War and Society in the Modern Middle East."
For those of you who can't read the code, this is an extremely reputable senior professor at a first-rate university, with a VERY strong publication history and an excellent educational background. He has spent his professional life learning, writing, and teaching about the Mid-East and Islam.
But hey--what do them pointy-head collitch boys know, anyway?
artyon: 
