One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds

The book under review follows the author’s earlier work, Islam Without Fear, published in 2003, in which he drew attention to the Islamic scholars of the wasatiyyah or ‘Islamic Midstream’, many but not all of them are Egyptian. Subsequently the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and the Nahda Party in Tunisia rose to power, perhaps given some latitude by the US government due to encouragement by Baker’s book? In this new book, the author charts the progress of these two ‘revolutions’ in his two favourite Arab countries, in the context of a historical treatment of the rich culture, diversity and resilience of Islam as a motivating force. He warns, ‘By not paying attention to the Islamic Renewal and to Islam’s epoch story for our own time, we deny ourselves the opportunity to make better sense of the one Islam and many worlds of Islam’ (p. 289).