By all measures, the late twentieth century was a time of dramatic decline for the Islamic world, the Ummah, particularly its Arab heartland. Sober Muslim voices regularly describe their current state as the worst in the 1,400-year history of Islam. Yet, precisely at this time of unprecedented material vulnerability, Islam has emerged as a civilizational force strong enough to challenge the imposition of Western, particularly American, homogenizing power on Muslim peoples. This is the central paradox of Islam today: at a time of such unprecedented weakness in one sense, how has the Islamic Awakening, a broad and diverse movement of contemporary Islamic renewal, emerged as such a resilient and powerful transnational force and what implications does it have for the West? In One Islam, Many Muslim Worlds Raymond W. Baker addresses this question. Two things are clear, Baker argues: Islam's unexpected strength in recent decades does not originate from official political, economic, or religious institutions, nor can it be explained by focusing exclusively on the often-criminal assertions of violent, marginal groups. While extremists monopolize the international press and the scholarly journals, those who live and work in the Islamic world know that the vast majority of Muslims reject their reckless calls to violence and look elsewhere for guidance. Baker shows that extremists draw their energy and support not from contributions to the reinterpretation and revival of Islamic beliefs and practices, but from the hatreds engendered by misguided Western policies in Islamic lands. His persuasive analysis of the Islamic world identifies centrists as the revitalizing force of Islam, saying that they are responsible for constructing a modern, cohesive Islamic identity that is a force to be reckoned with.

Islam is the fastest growing of the world's major religions. Yet the pervasive hostility to Islam in the West makes understanding its expanding global reach virtually impossible. Islam is all too often seen through a lens that focuses on the small minority of violent extremists rather than the overwhelming majority of Muslims who make up to the moderate mainstream. It is the centrist mind and heart of Islam that captures new adherents in such impressive numbers. For centuries, Abu Dharr al Ghifari, the seventh-century companion of the Prophet Muhammad, has provided a human face for Islamic justice as the core value of the faith. The influence of Abu Dharr has sometimes faded. Extremism may challenge the moderate and tolerant heart of the Islam of the Qur'an that Abu Dharr represents. Invariably, however, Islamic intellectuals have stepped forward to restore balance and moderation. Our time is such a period of renewal and the sweeping awakening of midstream Islam. In this study of justice in Islam, Raymond Baker focuses on the work of major intellectuals who have contributed to this Islamic Awakening. They include: the Egyptians Hassan al Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and Shaikh Muhammad al Ghazalli; the Turkish scholar Sa'id Nursi; the Lebanese Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Fadlallah; the Iraqi Grand Ayatollah Baqir al Sadra; the Iranian radical intellectual Ali Sheriati; and the American athlete and Muslim convert Muhammad Ali. Baker argues that appreciation for the work of these preeminent figures is indispensable to understanding how an awakened Islam with justice at its core has become a global phenomenon.

For the last several decades an influential group of Egyptian scholars and public intellectuals has been having a profound effect in the Islamic world. Raymond Baker offers a compelling portrait of these New Islamists--Islamic scholars, lawyers, judges, and journalists who provide the moral and intellectual foundations for a more fully realized Islamic community, open to the world and with full rights of active citizenship for women and non-Muslims.

The New Islamists have a record of constructive engagement in Egyptian public life, balanced by an unequivocal critique of the excesses of Islamist extremists. Baker shows how the New Islamists are translating their thinking into action in education and the arts, economics and social life, and politics and foreign relations despite an authoritarian political environment. For the first time, Baker allows us to hear in context the most important New Islamist voices, including Muhammad al Ghazzaly, Kamal Abul Magd, Muhammad Selim al Awa, Fahmy Huwaidy, Tareq al Bishry, and Yusuf al Qaradawy--regarded by some as the most influential Islamic scholar in the world today. A potentially transformative force in global Islam, the New Islamists define Islam as a civilization that engages others and searches for common ground through shared values such as justice, peace, human rights, and democracy.

"Islam without Fear" is an impressive achievement that contributes to the understanding of Islam in general and the possibilities of a centrist Islamist politics in particular.