Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror

Mahmood Mamdani was born in Uganda to South Asian parents and educated in the United States, receiving a BA from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD from Harvard University. He has held academic posts at several prominent institutions, including the University of Dar es Salaam, Makerere University, and Columbia University, where he became a central figure in debates over the role of empire in shaping global governance. At Columbia, Mamdani has been part of a vibrant intellectual community that includes historians, political theorists, and anthropologists grappling with the legacy of US hegemony.

Mamdani has long focused his work on the relationship between colonialism, violence, and political identity. As a person of South Asian descent who was expelled from Uganda under Idi Amin’s regime in 1972, he has direct insight into the legacy of empire, the politics of identity, and the consequences of state-sanctioned scapegoating. Having taught at institutions like Columbia University, Mamdani bridges both Western and postcolonial academic traditions. In considering America’s response to 9/11, he approaches US foreign policy not just as a geopolitical strategy, but as an ideological project rooted in a longer history of colonial and racial politics. He examines how categories like “terrorist,” “fundamentalist,” or “moderate” are not simply descriptive, but serve specific political functions.