Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror Mahmood Mamdani  three leaves press, 2005,  324 pp.

‘Cultural competency’ has become a recent focus for many medical education and psychiatric training programs in the United States. While the definition of such a concept has been provided by the educational bodies overseeing the creation and dispersion of its training, the method by which one reaches ‘competency’ is still varied. In addition, does simply being aware of the differences between cultures make one apt to understand and help those from a culture other than one's own? There has been critique that current available training focuses on cultural competency as a ‘static’ idea - that once someone has completed cultural competency coursework they have the skills needed to free them from cultural bias and will be able to understand the “other” more clearly. Some educators argue that “prescribing” such cultural differences without practicing self-reflection and awareness in clinical encounters further reduces understanding of other cultures into stereotyped patterns that provide little additional insight - yes your African American patient may be more likely to be distrustful of physicians, but are you aware of why such lack of trust exists? A suggestion has been made that those receiving training in such matters should not only be made aware of cultural differences, but should also be made aware of issues of social justice (or injustice) between cultures. The argument being that an awareness of power disparities between cultural groups is a vital component in order to be able to fully understand and account for how one's own possible privilege may play a role in one's perspective and treatment of persons from another culture. This additional layer of understanding may not only allow a person to be able to more empathically assist someone from another culture but also allow for deeper reflection of one's own possible bias. When reading Mahmood Mamdani's book, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror, I am reminded of the importance