Baker, Raymond William 1942–

PERSONAL:

Born June 22, 1942. Education: Ripon College, B.A. (with highest honors), 1964; Harvard University, M.A., 1967, Ph.D., 1972.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of International Studies, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106. E-mail—Raymond.Baker@trincoll.edu.

CAREER:

Williams College, Williamstown, MA, professor of political science, 1973-96, chair of the department of political science, 1988-91, named Third Century Professor of International Relations, 1993, Williams Executive Program, professor of international and comparative politics, 1993-96, Williams-in-Cairo Program, Williams College and the American University in Cairo, director, 1985-96, cofounder and chair of the Global Studies Program and chair of African and Middle Eastern Studies Program, 1992-96; American University in Cairo, Egypt, adjunct professor of political science, 1990—. Trinity College, Hartford, CT, professor of international politics, 1996—, dean of faculty, 1996-99, director of Middle East Studies, 2001-03, 2004—. International Center for Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies, Eastern Mediterranean University, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, member of governing board, 2001—. Global Partnership for the International University of Iraq, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, cochair, 2003—. Consultant to corporations, foundations, and government entities, including Sandia Laboratories, Pacific Sierra Research Corp., Rockefeller Foundation, Georgetown Center for International and Strategic Studies, U.S. State Department, and U.S. Department of Defense. Frequent media analyst and lecturer on politics.

MEMBER:

Robert L. Gaudino Program in Experiential and International Education (permanent member and member of the board of trustees, 1985-96), International Association of Middle East Studies (president, 2001—), World Organization of Middle East Studies (governing board member, 2002—), International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (founding member, 2005).

AWARDS, HONORS:

French-language French government scholarship, University of Aix-Marseilles, l962-63, and civic medal for contribution to international understanding; National Defense Education Act (NDEA) Critical Language fellow at the Slavic Workshop, Indiana University, 1965; Arabic and Turkish Language and Islamic Cultural and Political Studies Tunisian Government fellow, Habib Bourguiba Institute, University of Tunis, Tunisia, 1966; Ford Foundation Foreign Area fellow, Cairo, Egypt, 1968-70; Ford Foundation research and training grant, 1969; Boston University field research grant, 1972; American University in Cairo, faculty field research grant, 1979; Carnegie Scholar in Islamic studies, 2006-08; grants from National Science Foundation, Earhart Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities; Harvard University Russian Research Fellowship; Harvard University Staff Scholarship, Harvard University Government Department Award Undergraduate Dean's Scholarship, President's Scholarship; New Jersey State Scholarship; Johnson Foundation Award.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Egypt's Uncertain Revolution under Nasser and Sadat, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1978.

Sadat and After: Struggles for Egypt's Political Soul, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1990.

Islam without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Contributor to books, including Religion, Social Practice, and Contested Hegemonies: Reconstructing the Public Sphere in Muslim Majority Societies, edited by Armando Salvatore and Mark Levine, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2005; Political Islam: Revolution, Radicalism, or Reform?, edited by John Esposito, Lynne Rienner Publishers (London, Eng- land), 1997; Globalization: Policies, Challenges, and Responses, edited by Shereen T. Ismael, Deltselig Enterprises (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), 1999; and The Gulf War and the New World Order: International Relations in the Middle East, edited by Tareq and Jacqueline Ismael, University Press of Florida (Gainesville, FL), 1994. Also contributor to journals, including Arab Studies Quarterly, Alif: Journal of Comparative Poetics, and Daedalus.

SIDELIGHTS:

Raymond William Baker has researched, taught, and written extensively on Arab and Muslim societies. He focuses on a group of modern, moderate Muslim leaders in Islam without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists. While fundamentalist Muslims who endorse violence against people of other religions have received much media and public attention since the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, Baker's book demonstrates that there are alternative voices in the Islamic world. These "New Islamists," as he calls them, include Kamal Abul Magd, a law professor at Cairo University; Tareq al-Bishry, an Egyptian judge and historian; and Fahmy Huwaidy, a columnist for the Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram. They and others have developed a belief system known as Wassatteyya Islam, a centrist doctrine that rejects secularism as well as fundamentalism, endorses freedom of expression and gender equity, condemns violence, and while opposing some policies of the United States and other Western nations, does not oppose Western societies in general. They see Shari'a—Islamic law—as a sound basis for society but advocate tolerance of other faiths. Baker details their stands on these and other matters and posits them as the best hope for the advancement of Egypt, with implications for other Islamic societies.

Several critics noted that Baker brought expertise to his topic and thought he had made a convincing case for moderate Islam as a force for positive change. "Armed with a deep knowledge of Egypt," he "counters the sense of hopelessness engendered (and fed upon) by extremism with an intelligent and well-written analysis of the wider ambit of Islam," commented Akinbola E. Akinwumi in Logos. The book, Akinwumi continued, "forces us out of musty stereotypical molds … that garishly paint Islam as being about nothing but zealotry, violence, and the apocalyptic destruction of the West." Samer Shehata, writing in the Political Science Quarterly, remarked: "Few Western observers know Egypt as well as does Raymond Baker," adding that Islam without Fear is a "masterly work on the possibilities of political Islam and a much-needed corrective to the dominant view" of Islam as a violent, intolerant religion.

Daniel Pipes, reviewing the book for the Middle East Quarterly, praised Baker as a scholar but did not share his view of the New Islamists. Pipes maintained that Baker lacks objectivity about the New Islamist movement and ignores problems with it. The idea that there is a difference between extreme and centrist Islamists, Pipes wrote, is "silly and discredited." Akinwumi, however, asked, "Does Baker overrate the centrist forces in his depiction of New Islamism? No. Centrists matter in just about everything." Shehata observed that no book, "even one as thoughtful and rigorously argued as Baker's," would change the minds of people who are "already biased against political Islam." Shehata also said that Baker paid perhaps too little attention to the fact that the New Islamists receive criticism from liberal forces in addition to conservative ones, as the New Islamist thinkers see a place for religion in the political sphere, while liberals and secularists support strict separation of religion and state. On this topic, a contributor to the Arab Studies Quarterly commented: "A peaceful Islamic community based on the Shari'a, but tolerant of non-Muslim minorities is not the same as a democratic society that practices the separation of church and state while respecting freedom of religion, thought, speech and political action." To Akinwumi, though, "the New Islamists offer an articulation of alternative agendas that make it possible to speak on behalf of a progressive Islamic world."

In any case, numerous reviewers found Islam without Fear well worth reading, whatever one's view of Wassatteyya Islam. "Through the book one can better understand, though not necessarily sympathize, with the motives of various groups of people within Egyptian society," reported Muhammed Abdelmoteleb on the Web site Reading Islam. "Anyone seeking to comprehend the religious, secular and political make-up of Egypt today should read this book." Akinwumi concluded: "While helping us to understand the problems that beset Egyptian Muslims, it can set the stage for larger debates that create the atmosphere needed for a new world order oriented to social justice and tolerance of the ‘other.’"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, June, 1992, Louis J. Cantori, review of Sadat and After: Struggles for Egypt's Political Soul, p. 551.

Arab Studies Quarterly, summer, 2004, review of Islam without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists, p. 93.

Foreign Affairs, spring, 1991, John C. Campbell, review of Sadat and After, p. 196.

Journal of Peace Research, November, 2004, Cecilie Hellestveit, "The Place of Tolerance in Islam," p. 756.

Library Journal, May 1, 1990, Sanford R. Silverburg, review of Sadat and After, p. 99.

Middle East Journal, autumn, 1991, Marius Deeb, review of Sadat and After, p. 676.

Middle East Quarterly, winter, 2006, Daniel Pipes, review of Islam without Fear.

New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, summer, 1991, review of Sadat and After, pp. 1133-1134.

Political Science Quarterly, winter, 1991, Lisa Anderson, review of Sadat and After, p. 735; winter, 2004, Samer Shehata, review of Islam without Fear, p. 689.

Times Higher Education Supplement, August 6, 2004, Turi Munthe, "Just Old-Style Liberals Wearing Djellabas," p. 26.

ONLINE

Logos,http://www.logosjournal.com/ (April 18, 2008), Akinbola E. Akinwumi, review of Islam without Fear.

Reading Islam,http://www.readingislam.com/ (April 18, 2004), Muhammed Abdelmoteleb, review of Islam without Fear.

Trinity College Web site,http://www.trincoll.edu/ (April 18, 2008), curriculum vitae and brief biography.