Professor Mahmood Mamdani makes a well argued critique of ‘humanitarian intervention’ and the continuation of the ‘civilising mission’ in Dafur in the LRB
In a recent talk at the the LSE it was interesting to see how many in the audience were antagonistic to Professor Mamdani’s argument about the continuation of bigotry under the cover of blasphemy in the West’s critique of Islam. There seemed to be very little space for the ‘middle ground’ that he was advocating. The response to the talk seemed to say a lot about the continual denial of bigotry, racism and eurocentrism in liberal western modernity – in left-liberal as well as right wing political positions and arguments.
