"On American Policy towards the Islamic World
after September 11", by Mahmood Mamdani

Mahmood Mamdani, a professor of international relations and anthropology at Columbia University in New York, is among the leading experts on colonialism in Africa, post-colonialist thought and U.S. foreign policy. He is the author of numerous books and articles including: When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda; Citizen and Subject; and Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror.

Mamdani began his lecture by citing interpretations of the “clash of civilizations,” a popular image which some commentators have used to describe the post-Cold War world order. He discussed Samuel Huntington's theory that global war would take place across civilization lines, with the West against the Islamic world. He also spoke about Bernard Lewis's theory that a global war would be between “good” secular Westernized Muslims and “bad” Muslims, as variations of this image have been prominent in recent discourse. Mamdani explained that what these interpretations share is the idea that the world is divided between “modern” culture and “pre-modern” culture, a dichotomy which has permeated popular discussion of the current global order. He asserted that this division even exists in higher education where European politics is studied in disciplines like political science, and politics of the rest of the world is often relegated to specific regional studies, reinforcing this divide.

The purpose of Mamdani's talk was to reinterpret the central issues of mainstream debate, beginning with the assumption that culture is historical. Casting each culture in a contained space, in which the “modern” world is fluid and the “pre-modern” world is static and ahistorical, reinforces the idea that culture and politics are identical. Through this example, political violence is seen as a dysfunction directly linked to culture. Mamdani critiqued this notion, running through a brief history of political Islam and putting it in the context of anti-colonial nationalism and the Cold War.

Mamdani went on to illustrate how U.S. definitions of “good” Muslim and “bad” Muslim have evolved from when political Islam was seen as a valuable force in opposing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to the present day, when it is seen as the primary enemy. Through his analysis, Mamdani highlighted the flaws in conventional thinking about the relationship between the U.S. and the Islamic world and this analysis was a powerful critique of the dominant image presented by commentators like Huntington and Lewis.

Throughout his talk, Mamdani provided valuable insights into political events in both the U.S. and the Islamic World, and he worked these ideas into an effective redrawing of our understanding of this relationship. His comments provoked an enthusiastic question and answer session following the lecture, moderated by Professor Nadim N. Rouhana, general director of MADA. The session touched on both the historical analysis presented by Mamdani as well as more recent events, with many in the audience relating his analysis to events in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.