Ali A. Mazrui

The belief that Western societies are more “enlightened” than Muslim societies is hypocritical, argues Ali A. Mazrui in the following viewpoint. Islam and the West both curtail freedom of speech to some extent, he contends; the United States and other Western countries are simply more subtle about their methods of censorship. Mazrui is the director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton; Ibn Khaldun Professor-at- Large at the School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Lees- burg, Virginia; and Senior Scholar in Africana Studies at Cornell University. He is also the author of several books, including Cultural Forces in World Politics and The Power of Babel: Language and Governance in Africa’s Experience.

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