ABSTRACT
From a Saudi university of technology to a new mall in Nigeria, from Iranian students’ demonstration for reform to Eastern Europe’s transition to a market economy, the U.S. press characterizes all forms of modernization as Westernization. It is in much the same fashion that despots and theocrats equate demands for democratization as a quest for Westernization. Yet, modernity is a product of various civilizations, including the Islamic, which was in the vanguard of science and technology during Europe’s Dark Ages. Beyond modernity, the U.S. press reports as Western such social attributes as humor, charisma, grit, and pizazz.
