Islam Without Fear by Raymond William Baker

(Book Review)

Islam Without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists offers an analysis of the Wassatteyya, or the New Islamic Trend, of Egypt . Comprised of figures such as Yusuf Qardawi, the late Muhammad al-Ghazzaly, Kamal Abul Magd and Fahmy Huwaidy, the movement rejects both Islamist and secular extremists and offers a modern perspective of Islam that also departs from the traditionalists.

Baker’s book tackles the Egyptian context of education, the arts, community, economics, Islamic renewal and foreign policy, and describes how Islamist and secular extremists approach these subjects and how the Wassatteyya purport to offer a moderate, balanced approach. The Wassatteya, writes Baker, are “driven by a positive, mainstream vision which they affirm in thought and practice, rather than by defensive fears. Rooted in Egypt , the New Islamists address with considerable influence the broader Arab Islamic world. Their work poses the…question…[of] whether an Islamic project of the center, speaking for Islam without fear, can address effectively the demands of our global age.” .

The chapter titled ‘Embracing the Arts’ offers a very interesting discussion about Naguib Mahfuz, his controversial novel Children of the Gabelaawi and his attempted murder by an Islamist extremist. Baker shows how the Wassatteyya vehemently and intelligently opposed the Islamist extremists who took it upon themselves to declare, “Salman Rushdie as well as Naguib Mahfuz are apostates. Had we killed Mahfuz when he wrote…Children of the Gabelaawi [published over thirty years ago] his death would have been an example to Salman Rushdie…”. With the advent of the attempted murder, we are shown how Muhammad al-Ghazzaly rushed to Mahfuz’s hospital room, calling the appalling incident “A crime against Islam”, though he himself still criticized the novel that led to the attack. Ghazzaly denounced the influence of Omar Abdul Rahman, a leader of the Jihad group, calling him, “ a simple imam of a mosque with limited intellectual ability”. Though Ghazzaly still criticized Children of the Gabelaawi, Kamal Abul Magd was able to draw from Mahfuz that the novel was in fact extolling the virtues of religion and religious values over pure science devoid of values; interestingly the Nobel Prize committee singled out the novel, praising its ‘secular values’. Extremist (secular and Islamist) and Wassatteya views of theatre are also discussed.

Such Islamist extremism as the Mahfuz incident has roots and Baker argues that in part this lays in failed opportunities for Egyptian school-leavers and graduates. A devastating critique of education in Egypt demonstrates how many face grossly inadequate (and sometimes unsanitary) schools and universities. For those that manage to struggle through all this and complete their university education there is the prospect of no jobs. Baker shows how the alliance of the secular extremists with the government seeks to suppress the balanced, moderate approach of the Wassatteya , lumping them together with Islamist extremist movements. The result of this is to force the frustrated, alienated graduate to blame the government for his ills and in the lack of an open Islamic dialogue, to seek his spiritual nourishment at the hands of extremists whose concept of Islam is based on identity politics and anger at local and international injustices.

While such problems cannot be solved overnight, the Wassatteya propose a gradual approach, calling for a balance between ‘Westernizers' and those who feel threatened by this and retreat into Islamic movements. The New Islamic Trend argues that people can make a difference and propose that people give charity to help schools, hospitals and individuals, and join a communal effort to reform society. The position of women is also discussed and narrow interpretations of Islam that subordinate women are rejected. However, it is on the issue of communal reform that the Wassatteya, ironically, are perhaps extreme. They are very opposed to individuals concentrating on their own personal reform and argue that societal reform takes a greater place. They attack what they call the “daraweesh” who focus on individual acts of worship and forget society. Since the word “daraweesh” has connotations with Sufism, this can also be seen as an attack on Sufism. Throughout the book Baker (with obvious admiration) shows how the Wassatteya argue for a rationalistic, modern interpretation of the Quran; an interpretation that would reject mysticism and anything deemed ‘irrational’ to the modern mind. While there is validity to their view that individuals can take personal worship to extremes, there should be a balanced approach whereby people concentrate on personal reform and give charity to schools etc. One senses that in their desire for communal reform that the Wassatteya are out of touch with a genuine need for Sufism to steer one through our increasingly consumer driven, materialistic world. The fact the most people in the West enter Islam through the door of Sufism and not through a notion of Islam as a societal reformer further demonstrates how baseless such views are.

On the question of Israel and American foreign policy in the Muslim world, the Wassatteya, however, do offer a balanced approach. They oppose those who blindly accept an American military presence in the Muslim world and, intelligently, also oppose those who blindly support any and all forms of resistance to such a military presence. Their discussion of these topics is admiral and on a par with leading political commentators such as Noam Chomsky. However, this approach becomes extreme with their discussion of Jerusalem , arguing that, “ Jerusalem is not simply a city in a nation called Palestine. Palestine is rather a nation in a city called Jerusalem”. This detracts from the daily killing and suppression of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and turns the Palestinian cause into a narrow religious struggle, which it is not. However, Fahmy Huwaiday balances this view by arguing that while giving up Jerusalem was a dangerous thing “giving up the right of return is even more dangerous”.

Islam Without Fear offers a very interesting socio-political understanding of modern Egypt . Through the book one can better understand, though not necessarily sympathize, with the motives of various groups of people within Egyptian society. Anyone seeking to comprehend the religious, secular and political make-up of Egypt today should read this book.

A Muslim writer and a frequent contributor to Q-News Muslim Magazine