Critique of «Colonial Science» began in France and Algeria in the sixties, just after the decolonization. This explains why French-speaking research misunderstood the importance of Edward Said’s Orientalism, published in 1978 (French translation 1980). This article analyses the parallel dynamics of radical research concerning the knowledge and representations of the Orient, between France, the United State and the Third World during the second half of twentieth century. It discusses the links between science and colonialism, pointing out problems that appear far more complicated and ambiguous for Arab Muslim citizens when it involve their identity and not only academic research.